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EARLY HISTORY 



^ 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, 

MANAYUNK, 

SCHUYLKILL AND LEHIGH NAVIGATION 
COMPANIES, 



FAIRMOUNT WATERWORKS, ETC. 



CHARLES V. HAGNRR. 





Y 

P H I L A I) E L P H I A : 
CLAXTON, RKMSEN, AND HAFFELFINGER, 

.Si'. .\\l> S21 MAkKKT SIRKKT. 
1869. 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 

CLAXTON, REMSEN, AND HAFFELFINGER, 

in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States in and for 
the Eastern District of the State of Pennsylvania. 






COLLINS, PRINTER, 
705 JAYNK. ST. 



To my 
Venerable Old Friend 

JOHN McAllister, es^, 

Who, on various occasions, has so kindly extended 

to me the use 

of his extensive and valuable library, 

This Humble Contribution 

to the Local History of Philadelphia, etc., 

is respectfully dedicated 

by his sincere and much obliged friend, 

THE AUTHOR. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In the year 1856, I was called on by an old friend with a 
request to give one of a course of Lectures then being delivered 
under the auspices of the Rev. B. Wister Morris, at the School- 
room of St. Davids Church, Manayunk, I consented, and took 
for my subject "Manayunk:" Its early history, rise, and pro- 
gress. To do justice to the subject, I found it necessary to begin 
with the village two miles below Manayunk, the Falls of Schuyl- 
kill, where originated the Schuylkill Navigation Company, which, 
by creating the water-power or mill seats at Manayunk, was the 
primary cause of its origin. As I progressed there came up fresh 
on my mind so many interesting facts and circumstances, that I 
soon discovered I could not do justice to the subject in a single 
lecture. I therefore gave two, one on the Falls of Schuylkill, 
the other on Manayunk. What is contained in the following 
pages is the substance of those two lectures, which, at the repeated 
request of many persons, I have concluded to publish. 

C. V. H. 



CONTENTS. 



Fort St. Davids 
John Dickinson 
Godfrey Schronk . 
Andrew Garret 
Falls Creek . 
Joseph Neef . 
Robert Kenedy 
Josiah White . 
Flat Rock 

Captain John Towers 
Joseph Ripka . 
Chills and Fever 
Sales of Water Power 
Population 
Manayunk 
Stages . 
Post-office 
Turnpike Road 
Schools . 



PAGE 

9 

13 

22 

30 
31 
35 
39 
41 

51 
61 

71 
72 

75 
79 
80 
82 

83 
85 
86 



VIU 



CONTENTS. 



William L. Breton . 

Library . 

St. David's Church 

Cholera 

Personal Reminiscence 

Joseph Montelier . 

Steamboats 

Conclusion 



90 

91 
92 

97 
99 

lOI 
lOI 



EARLY HISTORY 



OF THE 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 



FORT ST. DAVIDS. 

The village now called the "Falls of Schuyl- 
kill" was one day a place of much notoriety, and 
there are many interesting facts of an historical 
nature connected with it, which few persons of 
this age are aware of; even its ancient name, 
" Fort St. Davids," which it bore for many years 
(about one hundred), seems to be entirely lost 
and forgotten. This name was given to the 
village and adopted by the inhabitants, near the 
commencement of the last century, by a number 
of gentlemen who built a fishing house there, 
and formed themselves into a society under the 
name and title of " Fort St. Davids." Their 
house, previous to the Revolution, was built of 
hewn logs, situated at the foot of the hill imme- 
diately opposite the long rock, as it was called, 
upon which the abutment of the Falls Bridge 



lO EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

was subsequently and partly built. This long 
rock I well remember, and have often, when a 
boy, fished from it. It extended from the foot 
of the hill to about two-thirds the distance across 
the river, forming a complete natural dam, a 
part of it overhanging on the lower side. In 
high freshets the water flowed over it and made 
a beautiful cascade; at other times it forced the 
river into a narrow channel on the western side, 
through which it ran with great rapidity and 
much noise, falling some five or six feet in a dis- 
tance of about one hundred and fifty yards, and 
could be heard at a distance of from one to five 
miles, according to the state of the river and the 
winds. There was a very singular and curious 
impression or indentation on a part of this rock 
that attracted many persons there to view it. It 
was apparently an impression of an immense 
human foot, over two feet long, and sunk some 
six inches in the rock. It showed the heel, 
hollow of the instep, ball of the foot and toes. 
It was called by the people in the neighborhood 
*' The Devil's Foot," and there were some super- 
stitions in reference to it. Professor Wagner, 
who when a lad resided near the Falls, and had 
often seen it, asked me lately if I remembered 
it ; he has some theory on the subject. There 
were many other holes, or pots, as they were 
called, in the rocks, caused by ages of attrition 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 1 1 

from stones and gravel, which the water, when 
flowing over them, kept in agitation. Some of 
these pots are still to be seen on a part of the 
long rock remaining, and not covered by the 
water. There was a tradition that they were 
used by the Indians for pounding corn in ; cer- 
tainly they were well adapted for such a pur- 
pose. 

The fishing company of Fort St. Davids was 
originally established by a number of prominent 
and wealthy gentlemen of Philadelphia, among 
whom were many Welchmen, who gave the 
Society its name, St. David being their patron 
saint. It was organized and governed in the 
manner of a garrison or fortification ; it had its 
commander-in-chief, governor, captains, lieu- 
tenants, &c. The commander issued his orders, 
proclamations, &c., in regular military style. 
The members and invited guests resorting there 
for recreation and amusement, the fishing being 
excellent, which it continued to be, until the 
improvements on the river began. For beauti- 
ful scenery, romantic beauty, and fine fishing, 
there was no place in the vicinity of Philadel- 
phia could in the least compare with "Fort St. 
Davids," or, as it is now called, the " Falls of 
Schuylkill." 

The company continued its operations hap- 
pily and successfully down to the breaking out 



12 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

of the Revolutionary War, at which time it 
numbered among its members some of the best 
and most patriotic citizens of the day ; but that 
period being no time for frivolous sports and 
amusements, it v^as in a great measure aban- 
doned, and most of its members rushed, in some 
way or other, to the assistance, support, and 
defence of their country ; and when the British 
army subsequently took possession of Philadel- 
phia, their building was destroyed by a portion 
of it encamped in the neighborhood. From 
information derived from my father, who resided 
at the Falls (in the summer seasons) from a 
period shortly after the Revolution until his 
death in 1830, and who, together with his neigh- 
bor and revolutionary commander and camp- 
mate— Governor Mifflin— was often a guest at 
Fort St. Davids, I gather that the motive for the 
destruction of the company's house was the pro- 
clivities of its members, who had often hatched 
treason in it. Governor Mifflin resided in the 
house on the upper side of the Ridge Road, 
above the Indian Queen Lane. It was formerly a 
beautiful country-seat, having fountains in front. 
It was subsequently owned and occupied by Jacob 
G. Koch, an extensive merchant of Philadelphia. 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. I 3 



JOHN DICKINSON. 

Some seven years previous to the Revolution, 
there lived in Philadelphia a highly talented and 
patriotic gentleman, a member of the Philadel- 
phia bar, John Dickinson, subsequently elected 
President of Pennsylvania. He wrote a series of 
letters addressed to the inhabitants of the Brit- 
ish Colonies, which were published in Philadel- 
phia and in London, and produced a powerful 
effect, both here and in England. Here, 
in convincing the people of the palpable injus- 
tice practised towards them, and in England, 
raising us up hosts of powerful, ardent, and in- 
fluential friends. These letters, or essays, were 
signed " A Farmer," and are referred to in the 
history of our country as " Farmer's Letters." 
They related principally to the subject of taxa- 
tion, denying the right of the British govern- 
ment to levy taxes here without our consent. 
They proclaimed — what afterwards became one 
of the battle cries of the Revolution — " No 
taxation without representation." To every 
student of American history, the powerful effect 
produced by Farmer's Letters" is well known 
and appreciated. There are many reasons for 
believing they initiated the American Revolution. 
Had John Dickinson been a native of Massa- 



14 . EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

chusetts instead of Pennsylvania, there would 
be no end to his glorification by New England 
historians and orators. 

To show the form and manner in which the 
fishing company of Fort St. Davids transacted 
its affairs, and also the patriotic character of the 
men who composed it, I have extracted from 
the papers of the day, published in Philadelphia, 
1768, the following proceedings, viz: — 

"Record of the admission of John Dickin- 
son, Fort St. Davids, i6th day of April, 
1768. 
Which day, in the presence of his Excellency, 
Governor Vanderspeigel, Esq., commander-in- 
chief in and over his majesty's colony of Fort St. 
Davids, and the territories, fisheries, &c., thereon 
depending, and vice-admiral of the same, in full 
court. John Dickinson, Esq., of the city of 
Philadelphia, barrister (the friend of liberty, the 
second Pitt, the author of the Farmer's Letters), 
for his patriotic productions in behalf of the 
rights and privileges of the present, as well as the 
rising and future generations in America, is 
hereby admitted one of our members, for good 
services done by him to the interests of the Bri- 
tish Plantations in America, and we do hereby 
declare that the said John Dickinson, Esq., his 
admission to be as valid, effectual, and sufficient 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 15 

to him as if he had paid the whole fees in use 
to be paid by Freemen. Extract from our book 
of records in the government of St. Davids by 
me. Deputy Secretary thereof. 

Witness hereunto my subscription, manual, 
and the seal of the government affixed. 

HENRY VANDERSPIEGEL, 
Deputy Secretary.'' 

From the Pennsylvania Gazette, 

May 12, 1768. 
" On Tuesday last, by order of the Governor 
and Society of Fort St. Davids, Fourteen Gen- 
tlemen, members of that Company, waited upon 
John Dickinson, Esq., and presented the follow- 
ing address in a Box of Heart of Oak. 

"When a man of abilities, prompted by love of 
his country, exerts them in her cause, and renders 
her the most eminent services, «o/ to be sensible of 
the benefits received, is Stupidity ; not to be 
grateful for them, is Baseness. Influenced by this 
sentiment, We, the Governor and Company of 
Fort St. Davids, who, among other inhabitants 
of British America, are indebted to you for your 
most excellent and generous vindication of liber- 
ties dearer to us than our lives, beg leave to 
return our heartiest thanks, and to oflfer you the 
greatest mark of esteem, that, as a body, it is in 



1 6 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

our power to bestow, by admitting you, as we 
hereby do, a member of our society. When 
that destructive project of taxation, which your 
integrity and knowledge so signally contributed 
to baffle about two years ago, was lately renewed 
under a disguise so artfully contrived as to delude 
millions, you. Sir, watchful for the interests of 
your country, perfectly acquainted with them, and 
undaunted in asserting them, ALONE detected 
the monster concealed from others by an altered 
appearance, exposed it, stripped it of its invidi- 
ous coverings, in its own horrid shape, and, we 
firmly trust by the blessing of GOD on your 
wisdom and virtue, will again extricate the Bri- 
tish colonies on this continent from the cruel 
snares of oppression, for we already perceive 
these colonies, roused by your strong and season- 
able cally pursueing the salutary measures advised 
by you for obtaining redress. Nor is this all that 
you have performed for your native land, ani- 
mated by a sacred zeal, guided by truth, and sup- 
ported by justice, you have penetrated to the 

FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION, \i2.N^ pOUred 

the clearest light on the most important points 
hitherto involved in darkness, bewildering even 
the learned, and have established, with an amaz- 
ing force and plainness of argument, the true 
DISTINCTIONS and GRAND PRINCIPLES that will 
fully instruct ages yet unborn, what rights be- 



' FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 17 

long to them, and the best methods of defending 
them. To merit far less distinguished, ancient 
Greece or Rofiie would have decreed statues and 
honors without number. But it h your for time 
and your glory. Sir, that you live in such times, 
and possess such exalted worth, that the ENVY 
of those whose DUTY it is to applaud you, can 
receive no other consolation than by withhold- 
ing those praises in Public, which all honest 
men acknowledge in private, that you have de- 
served. We present to you. Sir, a small gift of 
a society not dignified by any legal authority. 
But when you consider this gift as expressive of 
the si?icere affection of many of your fellow-citi- 
zens for your person, and of their unlimited ap~ 
probation of the noble principles maintained in 
your unequalled labors, we hope this testimony 
of our sentiments will be acceptable to you. 
May that all-gracious Being, which in kindness 
to these colonies gave your valuable life existance 
at the critical period when it would be most 
wanted, grant it a long continuence, filled with 
every felicity ; and when your country sustains 
Its dreadful loss, may you enjoy the happiness of 
Heaven, and on earth may your memory be 
cherished, as, we doubt not, it will be, to the 
latest posterity. Signed by order of the Society, 

JOHN BAYARD, 

Secretary. 



I 8 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

*' The Box was finely decorated, and the in- 
scription neatly done in letters of gold. On the 
top was represented the cap of liberty on a spear 
resting on a cypher of the letters J. D. Under- 
neath the cypher, in a semicircular label PRO 
P A T R I A. Around the whole the following 
words : * The gift of the Governor and Society of 
Fort St. Davids. To the author of the 
FARMER'S LETTERS. In grate- 
ful testimony of the eminent services thereby 
rendered to this country, 1768.' On the inside 
of the top 

* The Liberty of 

The British Colonies in America 

Asserted 

With Attic Eloquence 

And Roman Spirit 

By 

J— N— D— K— N— S— N, Esq. 

Barrister at Law.' 

On the inside of the bottom 

* I T A C U I Q_ U E E V E N I A T 

UT, DE, REPUBLIC A, MERUIT.' 

On the outside of the bottom, a sketch of Fort 
St. Davids." 

Mr. Dickinson replied as follows: — 
" I very gratefully receive the favor you have 
been pleased to bestow on me, in admitting me 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 19 

a member of your company ; and I return you 
my heartiest thanks for your kindness. The 
* Esteem' of worthy fellow-citizens is a treasure 
of the greatest price, and no man can more 
highly value it than I do. Your society in 'ex- 
pressing the affection' of so many respectable 
persons for me, affords me the sincerest pleasure. 
Nor will this pleasure be lessened by reflecting, 
that you may have regarded with a generous 
Partiality my attempts to promote the welfare of 
our country. For the war?nt/i of your praises in 
commending a conduct you suppose to deserve 
them gives worth to these praises, by proving 
your merit while you attribute merit to another. 

** Your characters. Gentlemen, did not need 
this evidence to convince me how much I ought 
to Y>^\ZQ your esteem, or how much you deserved 
f?ti?ie. 

"I think myself extremely fortunate, in having 
obtained your favorable opinion, which I shall 
constantly and carefully endeavor to preserve. 

"I most heartily wish you every kind of hap- 
piness, and particularly that you may enjoy the 
comfortable prospect of transmitting to your 
Posterity those Liberties dearer to you than your 
Lives, which God gave to you, and which no 
inferior Power has a right to take away." 

Similar addresses were sent to Mr. Dickinson 
from many parts of the country. A Town 



20 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

meeting was held in Boston, resolutions adopted, 
and the following Gentlemen, who subsequently 
became so conspicuous, were appointed a com- 
mittee to forward them, together with an ad- 
dress to the Author of the Farmers Letters^ viz., 
Dr. Benjamin Church, John Hancock, Samuel 
Adams, Dr. Joseph Warren,* and John Rowe. 

I have made some efforts to obtain a view of 
the box presented to Mr. Dickinson, for the 
purpose of taking a copy of the Sketch of Fort 
St. David's Fish-house, as it stood previous to 
the Revolution, but could not succeed in finding 
it. I should think so interesting a relic is in 
existence somewhere. 

I remember very well, when the tavern sign 
hanging in front of the lower tavern at the 
Falls, had on it a representation of Fort St. 
David's Fish-house, and the tavern was called 
"Fort St. David's Hotel." The village was 
universally known in old times as " Fort St. 
Davids," and the name officially adopted by the 
government as a post town, or route. I have 
lately seen an almanac for so late as the year 
1807, in which the name occurs in the list of 
post routes. My father always dated his letters 
and other documents "Fort St. Davids," and 
was a great stickler for the preservation of its 

* General Warren, killed at the battle of Bunker Hill. 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 21 

ancient name. It appears to me that it would 
be a matter of good taste if the people now re- 
siding there would restore and adopt it. As it 
is at present, the name " Falls of Schuylkill" is 
a misnomer, there being no falls there, much to 
the disappointment of many strangers who re- 
sort there with the expectation of seeing a 
water-fall. 

After the Revolution, what remained of the 
society assembled at "Fort St. Davids," and re- 
solved to rebuild their Fort, which they did. 
Some years after that it caught fire by accident, 
and was destroyed. Every vestige of this build- 
ing has disappeared, but the exact locality I can 
yet point out, having frequently, when a lad, 
played within the stone foundations that were 
then left. After the destruction of their second 
building, a portion of the members of the society 
united with the ** Philadelphia Fishing Com- 
pany," called the "State in Schuylkill," whose 
house was lower down the river. The "State 
in Schuylkill," I believe, still keeps up its orga- 
nization, and there was a history of it published 
some years since. In Watson's Annals of Phila- 
delphia there is a brief notice of Fort St. Davids, 
but it is erroneous in several particulars. He 
says, " The same association still exists, but have 
transferred their place of meeting to Rambo's 
Rock, below Gray's Ferry, the former attractions 



22 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

at the Falls, as a celebrated fishing place, having 
been ruined by the river obstructions, &c." I 
have already shovi^n that a portion of the Society 
of Fort St. Davids was merged into the Phila- 
delphia Fishing Company, which had also ex- 
isted many years previous, from 1732, and con- 
temporaneously with that of Fort St. Davids; and 
so far from the river obstructions being the cause 
of their removal from the Falls, there were no 
obstructions whatever, so late as the year 18 17. 
Fairmount Dam, the principal obstruction, was 
not erected until the year 1821, and after I be- 
came a resident of Manayunk or Flat Rock, as it 
was then called. I saw shad caught there in the 
spring of 1821. 



GODFREY SCHRONK. 

Mr. Watson goes on to say, "In former 
times it was quite different. Old Godfrey 
Schronk, now (1830) about 74 years old, a 
well-known fisherman near the Falls, in his 
younger days, has told me he could often 
catch, with his dip-net, 3000 catfish in one 
night ; often he has sold them at two shillings a 
hundred ; the perch and rock-fish were nume- 
rous and large. Often he has caught 30 to 80 
pounds of a morning with the hook and line. 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 23 

He used to catch fish for the Fishing Company 
of St. Davids, which cooked forty dozen catfish 
at a time. He described the Company's house 
as a neat and tasteful structure, 70 feet long and 
20 wide, set against the descending hill on a 
stone foundation, having fourteen ascending steps 
m front; the sides, consisting entirely of folding 
or movable doors and windows, were torn off by 
the Hessians for their huts in 1777-78, and so 
changed and injured the place that it was never 
used for its former purposes after the Revolution." 
In this passage my late and old friend Watson has 
committed several mistakes. There was nothing 
extraordinary in Mr. Schronk's catching 3000 
catfish in a night ; I dare say there are persons 
still living in the neighborhood who have taken 
more than that number repeatedly, and that so 
late as 1 817. I have seen men, in one scoop of 
the dip-net, have it so full of these catfish as to 
be unable to lift them in the boat, but were 
obliged to take them out of it with their hands 
and other contrivances, and I have known as 
many as seven large shad taken at one scoop of 
the dip-net. There were a number of persons 
at the Falls, who, in the fishing season— lasting 
some three months— made enough by catching 
shad in a simple hoop or dip-net to support their 
families for a whole year. They anchored, or 
fastened to the rocks in the rapids, the small 



24 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

boats from which they fished ; some of the par- 
ticular stations were more valuable than others, 
and there was much rivalship in the early spring 
who should first get possession of the favored 
spots, which the boat never left during the 
whole season ; if it did, by a rule among them- 
selves, any one else was at liberty to take posses- 
sion. 

The catfish spoken of by Mr. Watson were 
not the kind that are now found in the river ; 
they were a migrating fish, and came from the 
sea annually, in immense numbers, so numerous 
in some instances — I have seen it myself — as to 
blacken the narrow passages of the river. They 
were perfectly black on the back, and white on 
the belly, and were remarkably fine eating — 
very different from the catfish of these days. 
They came regularly on or about the 25th of 
May, the run of them lasting some two or three 
weeks. They were caught in immense numbers 
during the season, put in artificial ponds made 
for the purpose, and taken out as wanted during 
the summer and fall months. Thousands of 
people resorted to the hotels at the Falls to eat 
them with the accompaniment of coffee, and for 
many years the village was celebrated for its cat- 
fish and coffee. The old Mr. Schronk referred 
to by Mr. Watson, I well remember; knew him 
well from my childhood up, for many years. 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 25 

He owned the property, and resided on the 
Ridge Road, opposite Powers and Weightman's 
establishment. He was a very successful fisher- 
man, and also cultivated a truck garden. On 
the river front of his property he had a valuable 
shad fishery, where I when a lad often went to 
see them catch shad. On one occasion I saw 
them, with one sweep of the seine, catch 430 
fine shad, and saw, besides, many escape from 
the seine. He left a numerous family ; some of 
them, or their descendants, still reside in the 
neighborhood. 

My late friend Watson was decidedly mistaken 
in saying that the society and building of Fort 
St. Davids had no existence after the Revolution. 
It was, in fact, not until after the Revolution, 
that Godfrey Schronk had anything to do with 
it ; a calculation of his age given by Mr. Wat- 
son will show that, previous to the Revolution, 
he must have been a mere lad, and incapable of 
catching fish for the Company. The fact is, he 
was employed by the Company, but it was sub- 
sequent to the Revolution. He had the care of 
their house, and resided in it during the winter 
months, was a resident in it at the time it was 
destroyed by fire, some flax which his family 
was spinning catching fire, and communicating 
to the building. 

I recollect an anecdote of Godfrey Schronk 
3 



26 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

and a celebrated character who resided at the 
Falls, Dr. Smith, an eminent divine of the Epis- 
copal Church, and first Provost of the College — 
afterwards the University of Pennsylvania. He 
•built those three clusters of strange buildings on 
the hill, nearly opposite the Old Falls Tavern, 
among which was the octagon building — Smith's 
folly, as it was called — and vault in which his 
remains and others of his family were deposited, 
immediately on the brow of the hill. The doc- 
tor, who was celebrated, among other things, for 
his fondness of good dinners, undertook on a 
certain occasion to reprimand Godfrey Schronk 
for fishing on a Sunday. When he replied, 
" Doctor, if your dinner laid at the bottom of 
the Schuylkill, you would be very apt to fish 
for it." 

In his Annals, last edition, 1868, vol. i. page 
430, Mr. Watson gives a picture of what pro- 
fesses to be a view of the Fort St. Davids Com- 
pany's house; but it is all a mistake. He gives 
the dimensions of the house correctly, as it stood 
after the Revolution, and as related to him by 
Godfrey Schronk, 70 feet long, by 20 wide. This 
would be a plain oblong building; but the view 
referred to is of an octagon building, and no 
appearance of the high hill immediately behind 
the Fort St. Davids Company's house. This 
octagon building I well remember, but it was 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 27 

located further down the river, on the western 
side, near where the Columbia Bridge crosses it, 
and was, I believe, the Philadelphia Fishing 
Company's house. 

The history of the " Schuylkill Fishing Com- 
pany of the State in Schuylkill," published in 
1830, contains the following remarks in refer- 
ence to the Fort St. Davids Society :— 

" At an early era in the eighteenth century an 
association for similar purposes, called the * So- 
ciety of Fort St. Davids,' enrolling on its list a 
large and respectable number of associates, em- 
phatically termed the * Nobility of those days,' 
was established above the Falls of the Schuylkill. 
They were many of them Welchmen, some of 
them of the Society of Friends, companions of 
William Penn, and co-emigrants to the New 
World. On an elevated and extensive rock con- 
tiguous to the eastern bank of the river, and 
projecting into the rapids, rose the primitive, 
rude, but convenient and strong structure of 
he^m timber, cut from the opposite forest. 

" It was capacious enough for the accommoda- 
tion of the numerous garrison who were then 
more celebrated for their deeds of gastronomy 
than deeds of arms. Their retirement in the 
admirable location, at the foot of an elevated 
and woody hill, and on the rock-bound shore, 
favored the undisturbed enjoyment of their pis- 



28 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

catory sports and feasts. No chosen site could 
have been selected of more picturesque beauty 
and interest, or equal for angling on the mean- 
dering stream. 

"In those days, and long since in the present 
century, no place on the river equalled the Falls 
for rock and perch fishing, and small blue cat- 
fish were taken in abundance by hand-nets, dip- 
ped in the eddies of the stream, or in the circular 
water-worn cavities of the tide deserted rocks. 
Here was the chief barrier of the rising flood. 
When the tide was out, the roaring of the tur- 
bulent waters, precipitated over the continuous 
and rugged chain of rocks, extending from 
shore to shore, was heard on still evenings many 
miles over the surrounding country, and was often 
borne on the wings of the wind with distinct- 
ness to the city, a measured distance of five 
miles. * * * * The War of Independence 
dispersed the garrison of Fort St. Davids, and 
the peace found their block-house in a heap of 
ruins, having been consumed by the devastating 
Hessian corps of the enemy. On the invasion 
of Pennsylvania, and approach of the foe, the 
members of the society suspended their pleasur- 
able meetings, and secured all their movables, 
including a tolerably good museum, in a place of 
safety. 

*' On the return of peace and its attending bless- 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 20 

ings, the reduced Society of Fort St. Davids re- 
assembled on the old rock of the garrison, and 
unanimously resolved, with permission of the 
citizens of the State in Schuylkill, thenceforth 
to unite their forces and their preserved valuables 
in prosecution of their favorite amusements and 
festivities. They were no strangers to each 
other. In pursuit of a common object, they 
had often, as neighbors and fellow-sportsmen, 
kindly interchanged the civilities of hospitality 
on the highway of waters, and at the feast. * 

^ :•: r-J 

"Five or six immense pewter dishes, of divers 
forms, for the display of a barbecue, or a large 
rock fish at the festive board, which were 
brought to this country by the proprietary, 
stamped with the family coat of arms, and pre- 
sented to the Society of Fort St. Davids, were 
amongst the treasures added to the common 
stock." 

The author of the history from which the 
above extract is taken, has fallen into the same 
error with Mr. Watson, in ignoring the exist- 
ence of the society and building of Fort St. 
Davids, after the Revolution. He however 
correctly describes the Fort as it stood previous 
to the Revolution, "a strong structure of hewn 
timber," &c., while Mr. Watson describes it as 
it was subsequent to the Revolution — " The sides 



30 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

consisting entirely of folding doors, and win- 
dows," &c. There are two persons still living 
in the vicinity — Samuel Garret, and an old lady, 
born after the Revolution, who have frequently 
seen and been in this building. On the ap- 
proach of the British army, the five or six dishes 
referred to were sunk in the river, and taken out 
after that army left. In 1819, they were stolen 
from the " State in Schuylkill ;" three of them, 
which the thieves had hidden in Mavlands 
Creek, were recovered. 



ANDREW GARRET. 

On the west side of the Indian Queen Lane, 
about half a mile from the Ridge Road, there 
is an ancient one-story log farm-house, about 
two hundred yards back from the lane. It is 
now occupied by Samuel Garret. 

When I was a lad, there resided in this cot- 
tage a very old gentleman, Andrew Garret. He 
was the son or grandson of one of the Swedes, 
who were the original pioneers of this part of 
the country ; I often visited this old gentleman. 
He had hanging in his house (and they with his 
gun and other relics are there still) horns of 
deer that he had shot in the vicinity of his 
house, and he remembered seeing Indians fishing 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 3 1 

and prowling about the Falls. This old gentle- 
man met with an untimely fate ; some wretches, 
thinking he had a large amount of money about 
his house, broke into it, and in order to extort 
from him a confession of where it was hidden, 
heated a pair of tongs and straddled them around 
his neck, forcing the two legs together, which 
caused his death. They were subsequently ap- 
prehended, tried, and convicted. Tradition says, 
and I have no doubt of the fact, that the Falls 
of Schuylkill was the last place deserted by the 
Indians who inhabited this part of the country; 
it being the head of tide-water, and conse- 
quently such fine fishing ground, had, of course, 
peculiar attractions for them. That it must 
have been a great resort of theirs, is proved by 
the fact of the innumerable Indian relics that 
have been found in the vicinity. I have seen 
and found myself many stone axes, arrow-heads, 
and other instruments made of stone, the use of 
which could not be conjectured, many of which 
were deposited in the old Philadelphia (Peale's) 
Museum. 



FALLS CREEK. 

My fiither owned the two lower mills on the 
Falls Creek. When he became possessed of the 



32 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

one just below the old Falls Tavern, and on the 
same side of the road, it was and had been for 
many years a paper mill, one of the oldest in the 
country. It is now occupied as a dwelling- 
house, the entrance to it being over a stone arch. 
The mill on the opposite side, and lower down 
the road, he built himself. There had been previ- 
ously an ancient grist-mill on that site. Higher 
up the creek was a mill owned by Mr. Traquair, 
who was largely engaged in the stone-cutting 
business in Philadelphia. This mill had a 
water-wheel 36 feet in diameter, and drove a 
large number of saws for sawing marble. 
They were not the kind now used, but were 
single saws, similar to those used by hand, but 
much larger and heavier. Still farther up the 
creek were the remains of an ancient powder 
mill. In those days, that stream of water was 
very different from now ; even in my time there 
was at each of those mills power sufficient to 
drive, at all times, a pair of five-feet mill-stones, 
generally two, and sometimes three pair. The 
mill lowest down the road had two waterwheels. 
Like all the streams in the vicinity of Philadel- 
phia, it has dwindled down to almost nothing, 
and I suppose in the course of time will entirely 
disappear. I can remember when the Globe 
Mill stream was quite large, now you can hardly 
find where it or the dam was. The Wissahickon 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 33 

is small in comparison to what it was, and I am 
satisfied the Schuylkill River has much dimin- 
ished in size or quantity of water flowing 
down it. 

About the close of the last century there was 
much patriotic feeling prevailing on the subject 
of domestic manufactures, and a universal desire 
that we should become independent of other 
nations, especially in the event of war, and to 
avoid the difficulties our country had labored 
under in the Revolutionary War. Thomas Jef- 
ferson, afterwards President of the United States, 
was a personal friend of my father, and knowing 
he had mills at the Falls, early indoctrinated him 
with the manufacturing fever, and he procured — 
how or where I never knew — some, what would 
now be considered very antiquated machinery, 
for spinning cotton. The farthest back, and all 
that I can remember of it is, its being used for 
spinning candle-wick, for which there was great 
demand in those days. This was the first cotton 
machinery I ever saw ; I think there was some 
at the Globe Mill at or about the same time, and 
there may have been some at other places in the 
vicinity of Philadelphia, but I doubt if there 
was. About the same time the celebrated Robert 
Morris, the financier of the Revolution, and his 
partner in business, Mr. Nicholson, erected on 
the western side of the river, about opposite 



34 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

Governor Mifflin's house, a glass house, or estab- 
lishment for making glassware. The row of 
stone houses a little lower down the river was 
built to accommodate the hands working in it. 
I only remember this glass house as a ruin ; it 
was never worked in my time. About the year 
1808, it was occupied by John Thoburn, and 
altered into a calico printing establishment. It 
is now a manufactory of some kind, surrounded 
by other buildings ; it may be recognized from 
the fact of the gable end fronting on the river. 

There were a number of beautiful country 
seats in the vicinity of the Falls, occupied in the 
summer season by parties from the city. They 
were remarkably healthy and delightful retreats 
until the chills and fevers of 1821, after which 
they were mostly abandoned. On the hill (now 
(North Laurel Hill Cemetery) was the county 
seat of Joseph Sims, next below, that of the Wil- 
ling family, afterwards Peppers. Next below 
that (now South Laurel Hill) was William 
Rawle's place. On the upper side of the Ridge 
Road stood Governor Mifflin's house. On the 
right of the Indian Queen Lane, a short half 
mile from the Ridge Road, was the seat of Mr. 
Nicklin,* Then there were Dr. Smith's houses, 



* This house has lately been in a great measure demolished, 
and another built on the same site. 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 35 

and adjoining Mr. Carson's. Next my father's 
residence, about eighty yards back from the 
Ridge Road, where the Reading Railroad crosses 
it. Farther down, below Nicetown Lane, was 
the McCall mansion, and near it the country 
seat of Robert Ralston. On the western side of 
the river, on top of the hill, was the residence 
of Mr. Plumstead, who built that house. About 
half a mile below the Falls was the residence of 
Alexander J. Dallas, afterwards Mendenhall's 
Tavern ; near it was a rope ferry. There was 
also a rope ferry at the Falls Tavern, foot of In- 
dian Queen Lane. 



JOSEPH NEEF. 

About the year 1809, there came to the Falls 
a very singular character, Joseph Neef, a pupil 
of the celebrated Pestalozzi, of Switzerland. He 
was induced to come to this country for the 
purpose of introducing Pestalozzi's system of 
education by William McClure, the philosopher, 
who endowed the Academy of Natural Sciences 
of Philadelphia. Mr. Neef had a very large 
school of boys from all parts of the country, 
and occupied the Smith property ; the octagon 
and connecting building was the school-house ; 
the other buildings were occupied as dwellings. 



36 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

He was a very learned man, and a perfect child 
of nature ; he would never touch money, or 
have anything to do with it ; his wife, a French 
lady, managed and controlled all his pecuniary 
affairs. He never wore a hat, and he and his boys, 
during play-hours, were always together, swim- 
ming, skating, or roaming around the country, 
and were it not that he was older and larger, you 
could not tell master from scholar, for it seemed 
to be a part of his system to make a boy of him- 
self, and place himself on a perfect level with 
his boys in all their games and amusements, 
and also in their studies, yet a most rigid dis- 
ciplinarian. I was often in his school during 
school hours, and at other times ; I never saw 
a book there, and I believe there was no such 
thing as a book about his school ; slates, black- 
boards, and other contrivances, were all I ever 
saw there. The extent to which whole classes 
of these boys could carry out mental arithmetic 
and solve mathematical problems, without slate 
or pencil, was truly wonderful and astonishing. 
I remember there was publicly exhibited about 
that time a lad, Zerah Colburn, one of those 
prodigies supposed to be endowed by nature 
with the faculty of making great calculations 
mentally. A gentleman familiar with Mr. 
Neef's school called to see this lad, and after exa- 
mining him, told his father or guardian, that 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 37 

he could take him to a school where there was 
a score of boys, no older, that could perform all 
he had done, and much more. A party'of gen- 
tlemen brought him to Mr. Neef's school, and 
set him to work asking the scholars questions in 
mental arithmetic, which were all answered 
promptly and correctly, after which Mr. Neef 
proposed that his boys should put some questions 
to Colburn, which they did, but being out of his 
usual track, he could answer none of them. 
Colburn was a pampered and pert boy ; he got 
into a passion, and struck one of Mr. NeePs 
boys with a cane or switch which he had in his 
hand, who immediately mounted him, and they 
had a regular tussle in presence of the whole 
party, much to the amusement of Mr. Neef, who 
laughed most heartily. This scholar of Mr. 
NeePs is, I believe, still living, and if he should 
ever see this, he will remember the joke. In 
their play hours the boys were forbid going a 
greater distance than a half mile from the pre- 
mises. Mr. Neef had a method of putting his 
finger in his mouth, and producing a tremendous 
loud whistle ; the boys would be scattered around 
the neighborhood, and when they heard the 
w^histle, you would see them running from all 
directions to a common centre. 

It was his custom, when roaming around the 
country with his boys, to encourage them in 



38 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

hunting for anything singular or curious, in the 
way of a plant, flower, minerals, &c. When 
they found anything that excited their curiosity, 
they would take it to him, and he would, on the 
spot, with his boys around him, make it the sub- 
ject of a lecture. 

I have a work published by Mr. Neef, **A 
Sketch of his Plan and Method of Education." It 
is very curious and interesting. Many of his ideas 
and much of his plan were subsequently intro- 
duced into all our schools, and are now in general 
use, to great advantage. In the work alluded to he 
states how he happened to come here ; he says, 
" In the summer of 1 805, Mr. William McClure, 
of Philadelphia, one of Pennsylvania's worthiest 
and most enlightened sons, happened to visit 
Helvetia's interesting mountains and valleys. He 
was accompanied by Mr. Cabell, of Virginia, 
brother of the then governor. Pestalozzi's school 
attracted their notice ; they repaired thither, and 
were soon convinced of the solidity, importance, 
and usefulness of the Pestalozzian system. * * 
*On what terms,' said this magnanimous patriot 
to me, * would you go to my country, and intro- 
duce the system there? * * * My country 
wants it, and will receive it with enthusiasm. I 
engage to pay your passage, to secure your live- 
lihood. Go and be your master's apostle in the 
New World.'" 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 39 

When we consider the vast improvements in all 
our schools and systems of education that imme- 
diately followed the introduction here of Pes- 
talozzi's system, it would be difficult to estimate 
the amount of good done by this " magnanimous 
patriot," as Mr. Neef calls William McClure. 
Mr. Neef left the Falls, and finally went to the 
west. 



ROBERT KENEDY. 

On the 9th day of April, 1807, Mr. Robert 
Kenedy, an enterprising gentleman, then occu- 
pying the Falls Hotel, obtained from the legisla- 
ture of Pennsylvania an act, vesting in him the 
right of the water power at the Falls, on the 
condition of building locks for the accommoda- 
tion of the boats then plying on the river. 
These boats were long and narrow, sharp at both 
ends, and carried from 'j^ to 150 barrels of flour. 
They were generally manned with five men, and 
were only used in freshets or high water. Most 
of them coming from Reading, they were called 
Reading, or long boats. They required five 
men, not for bringing them down — for they 
drifted down rapidly with the current — but to 
take them back, which was done by the use of 
poles shod with iron, and was very hard work ; 



40 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

of course they could take no return cargoes. It 
was an exciting and beautiful sight to see these 
boats descending the Falls, which they did with 
great rapidity. Sometimes they would be almost 
lost to sight, and the next instant mounted high 
on the waves ; in some instances they were 
wrecked. 

The lads in the neighborhood delighted in 
going through the Falls in small boats. Many 
times have I worked hard for an hour in help- 
ing to pull a boat up, for the pleasure of going 
down in it, which was done in less than a 
minute. 

The act procured by Mr. Kenedy was merely 
a speculation on his part, not intending to erect 
mills himself, and the right he had obtained was 
offered for sale, but in consequence of the risk 
and danger from ice, no one would venture to 
build mills there. The ice freshets of those 
days were very different from now. The win- 
ters, it seems to me, were longer and colder; 
and before the present succession of dams were 
made on the river, the ice came down in im- 
mense large fields, with great momentum, and 
sometimes as much as from two to three feet 
thick. It seemed to me that nothing could re- 
sist its force. I have seen a stone wall three feet 
thick, against a bank, the earth behind being 
level with the top, torn to pieces. In conse- 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 4 1 

quence of this Mr. Kenedy's speculation seemed 
likely to prove a failure; but not to be foiled, 
the following year, April 2, 1808, in company 
with Conrad Carpenter, of Germantown, he ob- 
tained an act of the legislature, incorporating a 
company to build a bridge across the Schuylkill, 
and so contrived its location that the eastern' 
abutment should effectually protect his mill-seat, 
and he finally sold his right to 

JOSIAH WHITE.* 

Here let me turn aside a moment to say some- 
thing in reference to this Josiah White. I 
knew him well, and ever looked upon him as an 
extraordinary man, the most energetic, far-seeing 
man I ever knew; he was one of those who are 
always pushing out ahead of the age in which 
they live ; not much education, but possessing a 
large amount of sound practical common sense 
and enlarged views. I know of no man to 
whom the citizens of Philadelphia are so much 
indebted for certain substantial benefits they 
have long enjoyed. But more of him hereafter 
Shortly after Josiah White had purchased 

* This notice of Josiah White, Fairmount Water Works &c 
I furn.shed to the Philadelphia "Press," and it was pubiished 
in that paper, August 11, 1857. 
4 



42 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE 



Kenedy's privilege, he proceeded to build a mill 
for rolling iron and making nails, and subse- 
quently took into partnership with him Mr. 
Erskine Hazard, and added to their other busi- 
ness that of making wire. Their business was 
very profitable, and they soon discovered that 
their mill was too small, when they built another 
much larger and higher along side of it, where 
they were doing a very profitable business until 
both caught fire, by accident, and were destroyed. 
I was present at that fire; we had no engines, 
but adopted a plan I have often thought of since 
and by which we saved much property contained 
in the large mill. The small mill caught fire 
first and communicated to the roof of the large 
mill. We divided ourselves into three gangs; the 
first carried sand and strewed it on the garret- 
floor; the second carried water and threw it over 
the sand, while the third gang were employed 
removing everything movable from the next 
floor below. We then pursued the same method 
with that floor, and so on in succession from story 
to story. By these means we retarded the pro- 
gress of the fire, giving time to remove much 
of the contents of the mill. These mills were 
subsequently rebuilt. 

White & Hazard were using in their rolling 
mill bituminous coal. They knew of the large 
body of anthracite coal at the head of the Schuyl- 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 43 

kill, and early commenced making experiments 
with it ; they had some brought down by teams 
at an expense of one dollar per bushel (twenty- 
eight dollars per ton.) They expended some 
three hundred dollars in experiments, but could 
not succeed in making it burn. The hands in 
the mill got heartily sick and tired of it, and it was 
about being abandoned ; but, on a certain occa- 
sion, after they had been trying for a long time 
to make it burn without success, they became 
exasperated, threw a large quantity of the "black 
stones," as they called them, into the furnace, 
shut the doors and left the mill; it so happened 
that one of them had left his jacket in the mill, 
and in going there for it some time after, he 

discovered a tremendous fire in the furnace the 

doors red with heat. He immediately called all 
hands, and they ran through the rolls three sepa- 
rate heats of iron with that one fire. 

Here was an important discovery, and it was, 
in my opinion, the first practically successful use 
ot our anthracite coal, now so common. This 
important discovery was the simple fact, that all 
it wanted to ignite it was time, and to be "let 
alone." All this may appear strange now, but 
the hands working in that mill, and every one 
else who used the bituminous coal, were accus- 
tomed to see it blaze up the moment they threw 
it on the fire, and because the anthracite would 



44 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

not do SO they could not understand it, and the 
more they scratched and poked at it — an opera- 
tion necessary with the bituminous coal — the 
worse it was with the anthracite. 

On making this discovery, Josiah White im- 
mediately began to make experiments in con- 
triving various kinds of grates to make the 
anthracite applicable for domestic use, in which 
he finally succeeded to admiration. 

With the knowledge thus obtained, it became 
a very great desideratum with White and Hazard 
to obtain a sufficient supply of this coal for their 
use, for they discovered also that it was much 
better for their purpose than the bituminous 
coal in its effect on the iron for making wire. 
They thought of various plans, one of which was 
curious ; it was to build a number of sheet-iron 
boats not to draw when loaded more than ten 
inches of water. These boats were to be made 
in nests, one within the other, like pill-boxes, 
and carted up to the coal region. They built a 
small one, and Mr. Hazard, taking two men with 
him, started in it for the coal fields. The object 
Mr. Hazard had in view was to explore the 
river and make some estimate of the expense at 
which, by some simple contrivance, there could 
be insured at all times ten inches depth of water. 
He arrived at the coal regions, built a kind of 
ark, and loaded it with coal. Other arks were 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 45 

subsequently built and came down in the freshets. 
The iron-boat plan was abandoned, principally 
for the reason that Josiah White, about that 
time, started and originated the Schuylkill Navi- 
gation Company, which was chartered March 
8, 18 1 5. This was another of the beneficial 
acts of Josiali White, but mark how shabbily 
he was treated. He was one of the commis- 
sioners named in the act of incorporation. He 
was the father of the whole concern, and if they 
had hunted Pennsylvania through they could not 
at that time have found a better man for their 
purpose ; yet, notwithstanding all this, at the 
first election held at Norristown, they refused to 
elect him one of the managers on the flimsy 
ground that he was interested at the Falls of 
Schuylkill; but we shall see the consequence of 
this directly. 

As an evidence of the utilitarian character of 
Josiah White in everything he undertook, at 
the time he was starting the Navigation Com- 
pany, he drew with chalk on one of the long 
beams or girders of his mill, a plan of his 
proposed works along the Schuylkill River, 
and under it wrote with chalk, "Ten dollars in 
every man's pocket." Meaning, I suppose, that 
that amount would be saved to every one in cost 
of fuel when we could get coal down the river. 



46 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

At that time wood was the universal fuel, and 
was annually getting scarcer and higher in 
price. 

Erskine Hazard was the partner of Josiah 
White in the iron and wire business; in the 
erection of the locks and mill-seats he had 
another partner, Joseph Gillingham. They fin- 
ished the locks and canal on the western side of 
the river and two mills were built there — one a 
sawmill, the other for making white lead. 

On one of the occasions of the breaking down 
of the Falls bridge White and Hazard erected 
a curious temporary bridge across the river by 
suspending wires from the top windows of their 
mill, to large trees on the western side, which 
wires hung in curve and from which were sus- 
pended other wires supporting a floor of boards 
eighteen inches wide. The length of the floor 
of this bridge was 400 feet, without any inter- 
mediate support.* 

The bridge building operations at the Falls 
were peculiarly unfortunate ; the first one, a chain 
bridge, broke down in 181 1, with a drove of 
cattle on it; the second fell from the weight of 
snow accumulated on it in a snow-storm, in 1 8 1 8 ; 

* I believe this was the first instance of wire being used in 
bridge building. It certainly was in this country, and I never 
heard of its being used for that purpose in any other. 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 47 

the third floated off the piers In a very high 
freshet In 1822, and the fourth was destroyed by 
fire. 

The vvlremaking business, like all other man- 
ufacturing operations, which had been very pro- 
fitable during the war, when none could be 
Imported, was the very reverse afterwards, and 
it became a matter of consequence and anxiety 
to White and Gllllngham how they should re- 
alize returns for their large Investments at the 
Falls, The course they pursued was Ingenious, 
and resulted finally in giving to the citizens of 
Philadelphia one of the greatest blessings that ever 
fell to their lot. They published anonymously 
in the papers of the day, a series of essays, written 
by Mr. Hazard, on the subject of supplying the 
city with water, recommending that the city 
should purchase the water-power at the Falls, 
erect waterworks there, making a reservoir on 
the hill (then owned by my father, now the ex- 
treme northern part of Laurel Hill Cemetery) 
and convey the water through an aqueduct 
down to the city. There was much opposition 
to this, and a newspaper war on the subject, but 
finally the city councils took it up and appointed 
a committee of inquiry. This committee re- 
ported that it was impracticable to bring the 
water so great a distance through an aqueduct. 



48 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

and so far the matter ended.* But Mr. White 
began "DeNovo," and started in the same way 
through the public press, the idea of purchasing 
the water-power at the Falls and erecting a dam 
at Fairmount, which, through much opposition, 
finally prevailed, and I have always considered 
Josiah White the originator of the present 
Fairmount dam and waterworks. There had 
been used, previously, two antiquated steam en- 
gines for pumping the water, using wood for 
fuel. 

White and Gillingham received from the city 
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for their 
water-power at the Falls, and now Josiah White, 
smarting under his treatment by the Schuylkill 
Navigation Company, and disgusted with the 
slow progress that Company was making, in 
company with Mr. Hazard and a German gen- 
tleman (George F. A. Hautof ), procured from 
the Legislature, March 20, 181 8, "An Act to 

* Iron pipes had not at that time been brought into use, the 
water being conveyed through the city in log pipes. Had the 
large iron pipes now used been available, it would, for many 
reasons, have been much better to have erected the waterworks 
at the Falls, where there was the same fall and power as at Fair- 
mount, and a solid rock dam of which there could be no appre- 
hensions of its ever giving way. 

f Mr. Watson, in his "Annals," calls this gentleman "George 
Kauts." This is a mistake, I knew Mr. Hautoj was intimately 
acquainted with him. 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 49 

improve the River Lehigh," out of which grew 
the present Lehigh Navigation Company, of 
which he was one of the active managers until 
his death, November 14, 1850. 

Have I not shown good reasons for saying 
that I knew of no man to whom the citizens of 
Philadelphia are so much indebted for substan- 
tial benefits they have long enjoyed as they are 
to Josiah White? First we see him in company 
with Mr. Hazard making experiments with the 
anthracite coal, and succeeding in bringing it 
into practical use in the rolling-mill. Next, in 
successfully contriving grates to make it appli- 
cable for domestic use. Then starting the 
Schuylkill Navigation Company, to bring down 
a supply; originating the idea of the Fair- 
mount dam, resulting in giving to the citizens 
of Philadelphia such a plentiful supply of water 
as they never dreamed of before, and finally 
originating the Lehigh Works. The warrior 
who slays thousands of his fellow-creatures is 
lauded and glorified ; high monuments are erect- 
ed to his memory, on which are emblazoned his 
deeds of blood; but the modest, plain, unassum- 
ing citizen, who does so much good for his fel- 
low-men, and who neither seeks nor courts noto- 
riety, sleeps his last sleep comparatively unnoticed 
and unknown. 

When White, Hazard, and Hauto procured 



50 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

their act to improve the river Lehigh, Mr, Hauto 
had engaged to furnish a certain amount of capi- 
tal, which he failed to do; under these circum- 
stances White and Hazard became anxious to 
get rid of him; but by the act of the legisla- 
ture he had equal rights with them, and all they 
cpuld do was to buy him off, which they did, 
by agreeing that he and his heirs forever, should 
be entitled to receive one-half cent the bushel, 
fourteen cents per ton, for all the coal that should 
pass from or through their works. He sold this 
right in shares to a company for $70,000, and 
it was, I believe, finally bought up by the Le- 
high Company. Had he or his heirs retained 
it to this day, they would be in possession of a 
princely income. 

As some evidence of how far the coal opera- 
tions have transcended the wildest anticipations 
of those days, when White, Hazard, and Hauto 
procured their act to improve the river Lehigh, 
they had previously procured a lease for twenty- 
one years on all the coal lands in the vicinity of 
Mauch Chunk, a large tract of country for 
which they agreed to pay annually, if demanded, 
a rent of one ear of corn, and obligated them- 
selves, after a certain time, to bring down to the 
city for their own benefit, 40,000 bushels of coal, 
less than 1500 tons. In the year 1854, according 
to the report of the Lehigh Company, which I 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 5 1 

happen to have for that year, there came through 
the Lehigh Works 1,246,418 tons. 

The Lehigh Company, although commenced 
some three years after the Schuylkill Company, 
was the first in bringing coal to the city. When 
the dam was erected at Fairmount, it of course 
put an end to the water-power, fisheries and 
mills at the Falls, and from having been a thriv- 
ing, bustling little place, it became comparatively 
a " deserted village" for some years after. From 
the circumstance of various manufactories since 
established in the neighborhood, operated by 
steam, it has again become a thriving, active 
village. 



FLAT ROCK. 

The act incorporating the Schuylkill Naviga- 
tion Company, March 8, 18 15, required the 
Company to commence operations at two points 
on the river, Philadelphia and Reading, but as 
no improvements were necessary lower down 
the river. White and Gillingham making the 
locks at the Falls, the Company commenced 
operations at what it called *'Flat Rock," now 
"Manayunk." The name of "Flat Rock" 
originated from a peculiar fiat rock lying on 



52 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

the lower side of Flat Rock bridge. I presume 
it is there yet. The Company made a contract 
with Ariel Cooly, an eastern man, who had 
some experience in similar works on the Con- 
necticut River. This gentleman subsequently 
built the Fairmount dam. He was a fat, pursy 
man, and from gout or something of that kind 
was most always on crutches. I do not know 
officially, but my impression is, he was to receive 
$60,000 for his job at Flat Rock, including the 
dam, canal and locks, and by his contract, was 
obliged to have it finished on the ist day of No- 
vember, 18 18. In those days there had been 
little experience in that kind of work, and an 
almost total absence of scientific engineering 
talent as compared with the present day ; in 
consequence of which the works at Flat Rock 
were miserably executed, and subsequently, at 
different times, had nearly all to be rebuilt, some 
parts two or three times over. 

Mr. Cooly completed his job at or about the 
time he had contracted, and the water was let 
into the canal immediately after. Before the 
canal was made there was what was then called 
by the old inhabitants the " Dead Waters." It 
was a kind of a natural canal extending from 
above Flat Rock bridge down to nearly where 
the main road crosses the canal. In high freshets 
the water flowed into it from above, but gene- 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 53 

rally it was a kind of pool or swamp into which 
ran the little streams from the hills, having its 
outlet just above the canal bridge; the centre 
part of this swamp was much wider than the 
upper or lower part, and on that part of it be- 
longing to Rush's estate there were a number of 
trees, which were cut down and corded on the 
lower side of the canal previous to letting in the 
water. I purchased this wood of Lewis Rush 
(about 100 cords), procured a scow and took 
it through the locks down to the Falls ; this was 
the first freight that passed through those locks. 
About the same time the canal was being con- 
structed, the present main road, or street, was 
laid out; previous to that there was no road ex- 
cept the one leading from Green Lane to Flat 
Rock bridge and to the fishery and ford across 
the island. At the lower end, the road only 
extended from the Ridge Road, a distance of 
about 150 yards, to Righter's rope ferry. There 
was no road from there up to Flat Rock, and 
the only access to it except from Flat Rock 
bridge was from Green Lane. In laying out 
the road it was the intention and desire of the 
managers of the Navigation Company, who were 
the fathers of it, to make it straight, from the 
extreme lower end at Righter's ferry to the 
Domino Road, near Flat Rock bridge, which 
would have made it cross Church Street near 



54 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

where the Episcopal church stands, but the Lev- 
ering family and others made strenuous opposi- 
tion to that route, on the ground that it would 
cut through the middle of their farms, and to 
accommodate them the angle was made at the 
point where the street on which the Roman 
Catholic church is located intersects it; this 
threw it down nearer to the river. I have men- 
tioned the Domino Road, and may as well tell 
in passing how it came by that name. At that 
time and many years previous, nearly all the 
mills on the Wissahicon were actively employed 
in making flour, and some of the proprietors 
were a jolly set, continually out on the roads day 
and night picking up the grain that came in 
teams down the Ridge Road in large quantities. 
One of them had built a small store-house on 
the Schuylkill shore, above Flat Rock bridge, to 
take in grain coming down the river in boats. 
But the access to it was difficult, and they peti- 
tioned for a new road; a jury was appointed, who, 
along with some of these jolly fellows, went over 
the ground, after which they crossed over Flat 
Rock bridge to the little tavern on the western 
side of the river, the "Samson and Goliah," 
where they made "a night of it;" got hold of 
a set of dominoes, played nearly all night, and 
had a regular spree, which I often heard them 
refer to as the "Domino scrape," and they gave 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 55 

that name to the road. One of this party is, I 
believe, still living at Roxborough. 

When the Navigation Company commenced 
operations at Flat Rock there were but eleven 
houses in the whole distance from Righter's 
ferry to Flat Rock bridge, as follows: Samuel 
Levering's farm-house on what is now called 
Sherr's Lane; next, proceeding upwards, Wal- 
dreth's house, half-way up the hill, back of 
the German Reformed church ; two small 
stone houses between the road and canal, occu- 
pied by Benjamin and Michael Tibben, who 
carried on the shad fishery on the island; An- 
thony Levering's farm-house on Green Lane ; the 
Stritzel house at the head of Church Street, 
and their house at the foot of Church Street 
(torn down when the turnpike road was made) ; 
Benjamin Levering's farm-house opposite where 
the road crosses the canal; a one-story house 
nearly opposite and below the canal; John 
Tibben's house at the foot of Hippie's Lane, 
and the cottage on Rush's estate. The whole 
population about sixty souls. 

It appears strange now to talk about shad fish- 
eries at Manayunk, but that on the island was a 
valuable one, and large quantities of shad were 
caught there. Many years back there had been 
made along the Schuylkill a succession of rude 
stone dams from one, to three feet high ; they 



56 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

only extended a part way across the river, and 
were intended merely to force the water into a 
channel on one side or sometimes in the centre. 
There was such a dam extending from the island 
to the western shore, forcing the water into a 
narrow channel on the eastern side. These dams 
also prevented the shad from going up the river 
anywhere but through these channels. It was 
the custom of the fisherman to station their boat 
with the seine at the head of the island, and a 
man at the lower end to watch the schools of 
shad coming up, and when he saw them he 
would give a signal to the party in the boat, who 
immediately ran out, with the seine going down- 
wards. 

At first the views of the managers of the 
Navigation Company were much extended as to 
the amount of water-power. I remember their 
advertising 150 mill-powers, sufficient to grind a 
certain number of bushels of grain, equivalent 
to about 100 inches of water each, and I believe 
they were under the impression that there would 
not be ground sufficient along the bank to locate 
mills enough to consume the water. They were 
extremely anxious to sell power, but it hung 
heavily on their hands, and for three years after 
the water was let into the canal, up to January, 
1822, they had only sold altogether 300 inches. 
Many persons came to view the place with the 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. ^y 

idea of purchasing power and building mills, 
but were unwilling to run the risk of the fresh- 
ets, and declined. 

The first power sold was to Captain John 
Towers, loo inches, April loth, 1819.* This 
grant does not appear in his name for the reason 
that that portion of Anthony Levering's estate 
below the road or main street extending from 
the foot of Church Street to the mill built by 
Captain Towers was for sale. The managers of 
the Navigation Company were anxious to pur- 
chase it, but not thinking that any one else 
would buy it, wished to get it on their own 
terms, when Captain Towers came forward and 
purchased it for $5000. Some years after he 
sold the strip on the upper side of the canal to 
the Navigation Company for $2000. The pur- 
chase of this land by Captain Towers offended 
the managers of the company, and they refused 
to let him have any water. But he was too 
smart for them ; he procured a person of the 
name of John Parker to purchase power and a 
mill-seat on land owned by the Navigation Com- 
pany adjoining the lower end of his land, with- 
out appearing in the transaction himself, which 

* An inch of water is as much as will pass through an aper- 
ture one inch square under a head or pressure of three feet, 
measured from the surface of the water to the centre of the 
aperture. 

5 



58 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

when all completed was transferred over to him. 
I always thought this was a small business. The 
land was in the market for sale, and Captain 
Towers or any one else had as good a right to 
buy it as the managers of the Navigation Com- 
pany, and their refusing to let him have any 
water was fighting against their own interests. 
It was of great importance to the company that 
some one should commence to build a mill, and 
from the enterprising and venturesome character 
of the captain, such was the fear of ice freshets 
at the time, that he was perhaps the only one 
who could be found to run the risk. This was 
not the only instance in which the managers of 
the Navigation Company suffered their private 
piques to interfere with their official acts. My 
old friend Amos Jones, a most worthy man and 
a resident of Roxborough, rented of the Rober- 
sons the rolling-mill at the mouth of the Wissa- 
hickon. On a certain dry time he had not suffi- 
cient water to drive his mill. It took some 
time to heat the iron, and only half an hour to 
run it through the rolls; and he thought, by 
horse-power, he could pump into his forebay 
a sufficient additional supply of water to drive 
his mill the half hour. He erected the pump, 
but the Navigation Company, who had liti- 
gation and lawsuits with the Robersons, with 
which Mr. Jones had nothing to do, forbid him 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 59 

to use the pump, as he had no right to take the 
water out of the river, ahhough it ran imme- 
diately back. Mr. Jones then said he would 
move his pump further up the Wissahickon, and 
pump the water there; but this was also forbid- 
den, on the ground that it was one of the tribu- 
tary streams of the river, and he had no right to 
divert it. The Company was legally right, cer- 
tainly, but it was a useless exercise of arbitrary 
power, a spiteful act, tending to no good what- 
ever, resulting to the injury of a worthy man, 
and only calculated to render the Company un- 
popular in the neighborhood. Such foolish 
acts as these, and, in many cases, utter disregard 
of private rights, together with the destruction 
of the fisheries, rendered the Company and its 
works extremely unpopular along the whole 
length of the river; and generally, when it was 
brought before juries in suits for damages, it felt 
the consequence. Many cases of injuries and 
damage suffered by individuals along the river 
were exceedingly hard. John Thoburn owned 
and occupied the mill at the mouth of Mill 
Creek, on the west side of the river above Flat 
Rock dam, where he was spinning cotton. It 
was a good power, about sixteen or seventeen 
feet fall. When the dam at Flat Rock was 
made it completely drowned out his mill, leav- 
ing him, if I remember right, only about twenty 



6o EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

inches fall, which made the whole concern 
utterly useless, and broke up his business. He 
claimed damages, and instead of its being settled 
amicably, he was kept in law for years, had 
several trials, each successive jury increasing the 
amount of damages. How Mr. Thoburn came 
out of this long litigation I do not know, but 
this I do know, that Mr. Kitera, his attorney, 
afterwards owned the mill and farm attached 
to it. 

When the Navigation Company commenced 
its works, it had no idea of a tow-path; the 
method of propelling the boats was intended to 
be by the use of oars and poles. The tow-path 
was an after-thought, and the Company was 
subsequently obliged to obtain the right to make 
it from the Legislature. 

There was a farm, having a river front, where 
the owner's cattle were daily driven to water. 
The Company, without asking his consent, made 
the tow-path along the shore, and on his driving 
his cattle, as usual, to water them, there came 
along an official of the Company, and fined him 
five dollars for driving his cattle on the tow- 
path, over his own ground, and for which he 
had never received any compensation. 

In justice to the Navigation Company I must 
say, that there were many parties who prose- 
cuted it for damages who were by no means 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 6l* 

justly entitled to any, but, on the contrary, 
whose property was greatly benefited by the 
improvements along the river. The strip of 
land bought by Captain Towers, previous to the 
improvements, was of no value whatever, a mere 
collection of rocks and juniper bushes outside of 
the inclosure of the farm, yet it sold for more 
than the previous value of the whole farm. 



CAPTAIN JOHN TOWERS. 

Captain John Towers may justly be con- 
sidered the pioneer of Manayunk. He was a 
remarkably active and energetic man, originally 
a ship carpenter, subsequently a sea captain, an 
extensive merchant and ship owner, and finally 
a manufacturer. He was always a daring, ven- 
turesome man, and the very one to commence 
building a mill at Manayunk; for, from the fear 
of ice freshets so universally prevailing at that 
time, no other was willing to run the risk — and, 
indeed, for two years and a half after he built 
his mill, no one except myself did risk it — and 
I remember very well the astonishment of every 
one around the country when they first heard 
that Captain Towers had bought a narrow strip 
of rock, gravel, and juniper bushes, that never 
had any value before, for five thousand dollars. 



'62 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

and was about to build a mill, where they were 
all sure the first ice freshet would sweep it off. 
The captain was a very ingenious man in his 
way, and the plan he adopted in building his 
mill showed it. One of the first things he did 
was to build his water-wheel, when he put a 
man into it to turn it, like squirrels in a cage; 
and by the use of a rope around the shaft, 
hoisted the girders and all the heavy timber 
used in the building. 

I could relate many anecdotes illustrative of 
the ingenuity and enterprising character of Cap- 
tain Towers, but will confine myself to three or 
four. When following the sea he would often 
venture in such rickety old vessels as no one else 
would think of doing. On a certain occasion, 
when in a foreign port, the gentleman who re- 
lated this fact to me was there also, and about 
to come home. The captain solicited him to 
take passage in his ship; but he replied that he 
would not risk his life in such a rotton old ves- 
sel. He took his passage in another ship that 
sailed two days before Captain Towers, who 
told him, at parting, that he would be home 
before him; and true enough, the first man to 
welcome him ashore in Philadelphia was Cap- 
tain Towers, who had arrived two days pre- 
vious. 

On another occasion, when in a small vessel. 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 63 

he met at sea an English ship of war of sixty- 
four guns, in a sinking condition, with a signal 
of distress flying. He bore along side of her, 
and went on board. The commander of the 
ship requested him to take his crew on board 
of his vessel, but the captain told him it was 
impossible to put so large a number in his ship 
without throwing cargo overboard; but that if 
he would place his ship under his command, he 
would stick by him, and, in the last resort, take 
off the crew. The British commander con- 
sented to the arrangement, and Captain Towers, 
by various ingenious contrivances, finally suc- 
ceeded in getting the ship and crew safe into 
port, for which he was rewarded by the British 
government. 

One of the largest ships sailing out of Phila- 
delphia, the "Woodrup Sims," got ashore some- 
where in the Delaware Bay. Two or three 
different gangs of hands and riggers were sent 
down to get her off; but all failed and aban- 
doned the attempt, when Captain Towers hired 
a sloop, took down some hands, and the third 
day after had the ship safe at the wharf in Phila- 
delphia, for which Joseph Sims, the owner, paid 
him eight thousand dollars. He paid his men 
liberally, and all his expenses amounted to less 
than five hundred dollars. 

During the war of 18 12 a number of small 



64 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

sloops and schooners — I think they called them 
"block ships" — were got up and armed by the 
government for the defence of the Delaware 
River, then blockaded by the British. They 
were mostly commanded by ordinary merchant 
sea captains. A son of Captain Towers com- 
manded one of them, the whole being under the 
command of a United States naval officer. On 
a certain occasion, when about being attacked 
by the British vessels, the commodore gave the 
signal to retreat, which was done. A few days 
after, young Towers came up to the city, when 
he was severely reprimanded by his father for 
running away. He pleaded in vain his orders 
from the commodore; the captain denounced 
him, the commodore, and the whole party as a 
set of cowards, and was very indignant. Shortly 
after the same thing occurred, when young 
Towers disregarded the signal, determined to 
have a brush with the enemy — was very near 
losing his vessel, and was suspended for disobey- 
ing orders; but, on his arrival home, his father 
received him with great glee, praised him for 
his conduct, and told him he would sustain and 
defend him at all hazards. He held a corre- 
spondence on the subject with the then Secre- 
tary of the Navy, William Jones, of Philadel- 
phia, with whom he had been for many years 
on terms of intimacy. The final result of this 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 65 

correspondence was a challenge from Captain 
Towers to the Secretary of the Navy to fight a 
duel. This anecdote was related to me by the 
late Henry Manly, who was at the time a clerk 
in Captain Towers' counting-house, and privy 
to all the circumstances. 

Some three years before Captain Towers com- 
menced operations at Manayunk, he purchased 
two mill seats at Rock Hill, on the creek oppo- 
site Manayunk, and erected two mills there. 
Silas Jones, a farmer in the vicinity, told me 
that on a certain morning he passed there on 
his way to market, when there was nothing 
there, and was utterly astonished on his return 
in the evening at seeing a two-story house, 
smoke coming out of the chimney, and people 
living in it. The captain had this house framed 
in the city, brought out in teams, together with 
the necessary mechanics, and had it all put to- 
gether before night. I presume it is there yet. 
It was located on the top of a high rock just 
on the edge of a precipice.'=^ A short time pre- 

* There were three other mills on this creek. Helmbold's 
paper-mill, Lloyd Jones' paper-mill, and Levering's grist and 
saw-mill at the mouth of the creek. Mr. Lloyd Jones told me 
he was once in possession of more money than any other man in 
the country. Previous to the removal of the government from 
Philadelphia to Washington, there was sold in the city an im- 
mense lot of old paper money ; he bought some tons of it, at the 
price of old rags, for making paper. 



66 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

vious to his death, he commenced to build a 
bridge across the river at the foot of Green lane, 
and had he lived, I have no doubt he would have 
persevered and accomplished it. The present 
bridge was subsequently built there by a company. 
This risky, daring character of Captain Towers 
was finally the cause of his death. He had some 
lawsuit at Norristown, and had chosen me for his 
arbitrator. He had a sorrel horse and a rickety 
old vehicle in which we started for Norristown. 
I soon discovered there was something wrong in 
the gearing; for whenever we came to descend- 
ing ground, the carriage would run on the 
horse's heels, and cause him to kick and run. 
We stopped at a store, procured a rope, and he 
patched it up somehow, but it made it very little 
better. I told him it would not do : he said it 
would. I concluded that if he was not afraid 
it would never do for me to show fear, although 
I acknowledge I felt it. As we were descending 
the long hill at Barnhill Church, the horse be- 
gan to kick and run at full speed down the hill, 
and before we arrived at the foot of it, the vehi- 
cle capsized, pitching the captain and myself 
with great force against a large tree. I struck it 
with my breast, and must have rebounded back, 
for I fell clear of him, and he lay at the foot 
of the tree. I was considerably hurt, but the 
captain much worse ; his arm and two of his ribs 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 67 

were broken. He never got over it, and died 
shortly after. 

Some three years previous to his death he had 
a suit in one of the courts of Philadelphia, 
which was decided against him; he attributed 
the result entirely to the ingenuity, dexterity, 
and tact of Col. Page, his opposing counsel, 
with whom he was so much pleased that he im- 
mediately employed him as his counsel, which 
he continued to be until the death of Captain 
Towers. 

About the same time Captain Towers built his 
mill, Mr. Silas Levering erected his hotel — the 
first hotel in Manayunk ; and the captain built 
a small house, in which he resided, on the lower 
side of the canal adjoining his mill. When 
he had completed his mill he rented the third 
story to Isaac Baird, who was the first cotton- 
spinner of Manayunk. The two lower stories 
he used himself in the woollen business, and 
subsequently rented a part to Edward and John 
Preston. He also built six frame houses on 
the upper side of the canal, which were sub- 
sequently removed into Green Lane. Isaac 
Baird occupied two of these houses, in one of 
which he kept a store, the first store in Mana- 
yunk, and in one of them was born the first 
child, a daughter of Isaac Baird. 

At the beginning of September, 1820, I pur- 



68 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

chased the second power sold, and became a resi- 
dent of Manayunk;* and if I lived there now I 
suppose I would be that celebrated individual, 
"the oldest inhabitant," that is, outside of those 
"to the manor born;" and I believe there is but 
one such now residing there, Mr. Perry Levering. 
When I called at the Navigation Company's office 
to make my purchase, my elder brother was with 
me, and in the course of conversation with the 
committee, of whom I think Dr. Preston was 
the chief, my brother, who had some knowledge 
of hydraulics and the flow of water, asked the 
question, if they restricted me to any particular 
form or shape of the aperture through which the 
water was to pass. In rather a contemptuous 
way, as if it appeared to them a silly question, 
they answered that I might make it in any form 
or shape I chose. He then asked them if they 
were aware that the shape and certain appen- 
dages made a very great difference. They reite- 
rated that I might make it as I pleased, so that 
it was of no more capacity or size than I paid 
for, and when we left the office I remember my 
brother saying that those men did not under- 
stand their business, or know what they were 
about. They found it out some years after, how- 
ever. 

* This does not appear on the records of the Navigation 
Company as the second power sold, for the reason that I did 
not procure my title until I purchased an additional fifty inches. 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 69 

As soon as I made my purchase of fifty Inches 
of water, to which I subsequently added fifty 
more, I commenced building, and set some 
laborers to work digging the foundation. In 
less than an hour after, old Mr. Paul Jones — not 
the late Paul Jones, but his father — who resided 
in the farm-house on the hill, immediately 
opposite where I was at work, where he had 
lived all his life, and was then, I believe, eighty- 
two years old, came over to me in a boat. I 
had known him before, and believe he took 
some interest in me. He had heard I was going 
to build a mill, saw me commencing, and came 
over expressly to dissuade me from it. He ap- 
peared quite anxious on the subject. He said 
to me, ** Charles, thee had better stop at once; 
thee will be ruined; thee can never build any- 
thing here to resist the ice freshets." I must 
confess I had some doubts myself, but I had the 
winter before watched the effect of the ice going 
over the dam, and saw that when large cakes 
came down the river, and projected over the 
dam a short distance, they broke off with their 
own weight into small pieces, and came down 
comparatively harmless. Were it not for this 
simple effect, and we should have an old-fashion 
winter, a sudden freshet and breaking up of the 
ice, I very much doubt if many of the mills at 
Manayunk could resist it. This old Mr. Paul 



70 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

Jones was a remarkably sprightly old gentleman 
for his age. Some two or three years before the 
time I speak of, during a hard winter a flock of 
wild turkeys came on the hills opposite Mana- 
yunk. The old gentleman mounted a horse, 
rode through the snow and woods over the hills 
as fast as any of the party who were in pursuit 
of them. He once told me that a certain friend 
(a preacher) from England was in Philadelphia, 
and he went in a sleigh to bring him up to his 
house. He drove his sleigh on the Schuylkill 
at Market Street, and came all the way up on 
the river. This friend remarked, "What a 
beautiful valley and meadow this must be in 
summer!" — never dreaming that he was riding 
on a river. 

I had some twenty hands at work on my 
building, and such was the state of Manayunk 
at that time, that the only place where I could 
board them was the one-story house below the 
canal, near where I was building. I finished 
my mill, and commenced making oil and grind- 
ing drugs — the purpose for which I built it — 
and shortly after added a fulling mill, and had 
made by Alfred Jenks, then of Holmesburg, a 
number of power-looms for weaving satinets. 
These were the first power-looms ever used in 
Pennsylvania for weaving woollen goods. 

In verification of the old adage, " Great oaks 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 7 1 

from little acorns grow," my humble establish- 
ment became the birth-place, if I may so ex- 
press it, of others much more extensive. For 
my own purposes I only used the two lower 
stories; the upper story I rented to others — first 
to Mark Richards & Co., who built a large 
cotton-spinning mill higher up the canal; next, 
in part, to Moses Hey for several years, until he 
built his mill; then to other parties, and last, 
though not least, to the late Joseph Ripka. 



JOSEPH RIPKA. 

My excellent old friend occupied a part of 
the third story with some machinery for spinning 
worsted yarn; and this was his first appearance 
at Manayunk, he having previously operated in 
the city. He soon after built a large mill, and 
filled it with power-looms, and subsequently 
built and bought other mills. He was a re- 
markably active and enterprising man, for many 
years the life and soul of Manayunk. Having 
but recently died, there are so many living in 
Manayunk familiar with his excellent qualities, 
that it seems superfluous to mention them. He 
was public spirited, liberal and generous in every- 
thing tending to the improvement and good of 
the village, universally beloved and respected 



72 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

by its citizens. The respect paid to his me- 
mory on the occasion of his funeral was a 
beautiful evidence of it, and will not soon be 
forgotten. All the mills, stores, and shops were 
closed; the factory bells tolled, and hundreds of 
the operatives, male and female, lined the street 
through which the melancholy procession passed. 
He left a host of friends and admirers to mourn 
his loss, and the termination of his valuable and 
useful life. 



CHILLS AND FEVER. 

For several years from 1821, Manayunk was 
sorely afflicted with chills and fever, and doubt- 
less the growth of the village was much retarded 
from this cause, for it made it very unpopular. 
Previous to the improvements on the river the 
disease was scarcely known along its shores; I 
had never heard of a single case; but in 1821 
it broke out with great virulence. I have been 
trying to remember, but cannot call to mind a 
single man, woman, or child in the village that 
escaped it. I used to think that the very dogs 
had the shakes and fever, and near the Falls 
there was a monkey, which, it was said, had a 
regular tertian ague. Isaac Baird, who, from 
the nature of his business, employed more hands 
than any one else at that time, was obliged to 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 73 

Stop and shut up his mill for some six or eight 
weeks, himself and all his hands being unable to 
work. He retreated, with his family, to Ger- 
mantown, and I fled to the Leverington Hotel 
on the Ridge Road; not, however, until the 
disease had taken fast hold of me; and I served 
a regular apprenticeship to it, off and on, for 
some three or four years. At that time there 
was a race of men in existence, employed in 
the woollen manufactories, who have since be- 
come entirely extinct. They came from Eng- 
land. Their business was to shear cloth with 
an immense pair of shears from three to five feet 
long. They were shortly after superseded by 
the invention of the cloth-shearing machines 
now in use. They were biped animals certainly, 
but stupidly ignorant. They had been accus- 
tomed from youth up to handle these cloth 
shears, which they did well; beyond that they 
did not appear to have a single idea, except 
drinking porter, which they did by wholesale. 
Those kind of workmen were very much 
wanted at that time and hard to be got. Captain 
i Towers and the Prestons obtained five or six of 
them from Yorkshire, England. They arrived 
here in the extreme warm weather, clothed in 
the thickest kind of woollen garments, woollen 
stockings, &c. They were all remarkably large 
stout men of fine healthy color and appearance. 



74 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE 



but one month's residence at Manayunk was 
quite sufficient to ** use them up ;" any person 
who had seen them at the beginning of the 
month and again at the end of it, would be 
almost ready to swear they were not the same 
party. All their fine rosy color had vanished, 
and they became miserable, cadaverous, melan- 
choly looking objects. From sheer ignorance 
and stupidity two of them lost their lives. One, 
when in the hot stage of the disease, to cool 
himself went into a damp cellar, stripped him- 
self, and lay on his back on the damp ground. 
There happened to be a jug of buttermilk 
within his reach, he drank it and was a corpse 
in a very short time. Another got an idea that 
it required something powerfully strong to kill 
the disease ; he procured a pint of horseradish 
and cider which he swallowed at one gulp. It 
threw him into convulsions and he died. With 
a few such exceptions as these the disease was 
rarely fatal; on the contrary, often a subject of 
mirth. It was quite a common affair to see 
half a dozen at a time around Silas Levering's 
stove in the bar-room of his hotel, all shaking 
at the same time, others looking on quizzing and 
laughing at them; and more than once have I 
seen the tables turned, and the merry ones 
obliged to take their turn at the stove and be 
laughed at. 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. '^^ 

SALES OF WATER POWER. 

Captain Towers and myself stood alone at 
Flat Rock for one year after I built. When on 
the 5th of September, 1821, William J. Brooke 
purchased the third power, sold 50 inches, and 
built a small mill adjoining Captain Towers, for 
making flock of woollen rags; the lower part he 
rented to William Rowland for grinding saws, 
and an upper story to Thomas B. Darrach for 
making hat bodies. He was immediately fol- 
lowed on the 14th of the same month by James 
Elliot, who purchased the fourth power, 100 
inches, and built a mill next below Mr. Brooke's. 
Elliot's business was grinding oak bark, and he 
rented the upper stories to Mr. Garside for 
spinning flax. A short time after these two 
mills were built they caught fire and were de- 
stroyed. There was no fire engine in the village 
at that time, and the small one from the ridge 
was brought down; we succeeded in getting it 
over the canal and placed it on the bank im*me- 
diately in front of Brooke's mill. It had, how- 
ever, been neglected for a long time, was out of 
order, and no use. During the fire an explosion 
took place in Brooke's mill. It seemed he had 
part of a keg of powder stowed away in the loft, 
which exploded with a loud report. It did no 



76 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

harm ; on the contrary, by scattering the roof 
then in flames, it perhaps assisted in saving 
Captain Towers' mill, to which we bent all our 
exertions. 

These four powers, amounting together to 
300 inches, included all the company had sold 
up to January, 1822. But after this for a short 
time it sold rapidly. The fifth power to Mark 
Richards & Co., 240 inches, January 8th, 1822, 
the 40 inches granted to them without charge 
in consideration of having less fall and building 
higher up the river. It was for a cotton manu- 
factory, and some time after it was in operation 
there was employed in it an operative who after- 
wards became a celebrated character, Sam Patch, 
of jumping notoriety, who at last took one jump 
too many and was drowned or killed. The 
sixth power, 100 inches, was sold to Samuel R. 
Wood, January 9th, 1822, who built the mill 
afterwards bought by Borie, Lagurene, & Keat- 
ing. Mr. Wood, with whom my brother was 
connected, occupied the lower stories of his mill 
for making white lead, the upper stories he 
rented to Borie, Lagurene, & Keating for spin- 
ning cotton. The seventh power, 150 inches, 
was sold to Peter Roberson and George Smick, 
April iith, 1822. This was for land purchased 
of them. The eighth power, 65 inches, was 
bought by William Alexander for a saw-mill. 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. ^J 

April 23d, 1822. This was afterward pur- 
chased by William Rowland, who built a mill 
for grinding saws. Previous to Mr. Alexander 
selling it he erected a frame building for sawing 
lumber near the shore of the river, where the 
main road crosses the canal. In a freshet it 
floated off into the river, but was tied to a tree 
with a strong rope and swung out in the stream 
several days. When the water subsided it was 
replaced on the foundation. It was operated 
with a small flutter water-wheel, the only one 
of the kind ever used in Manayunk. The 
ninth power sold was to Ann Dawson, 150 
inches. This was for the cotton mill at the 
lower end of the canal. It was operated by 
Morris and Wilson. Mr. Morris was the son of 
the celebrated Robert Morris, the financier of 
the Revolution. Some years after he was elected 
Sheriff' of Philadelphia County, and died while 
in office. That establishment was afterwards 
purchased and carried on by Messrs. S. & T. 
Wagner. This made 705 inches sold in a little 
over four months of the year 1822, which, added 
to the 300 inches previously sold, made 1005 
inches; and now the Navigation Company raised 
the price 50 per cent., to $4.50 per inch, and 
with the exception of 50 inches I purchased 
November 22, 1822, no more was sold for three 
years, until March 7, 1825, from which time 
the sales were as follows : — 



78 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

March 7, 1825, Borie, Lagurene, & 

Keating, 100 Inches. 

May 6, " Thos. B. Darrach, 100 " 
Aug. 27, " Smick & Gorges, 50 " 
Sept. 3, " Wm. J. Brooke, 25 

Making, together with the fifty inches I pur- 
chased November 22, 1822, 325 inches. Total 
sold up to September 3, 1825, 1330 inches. 
And now the price was again raised to six dollars 
per inch. Sales as follows: — 

July 15, 1826, William Rowland, 35 Inches. 

Nov. 21, " Borie & Lagurene, 100 " 

Oct. 5, 1827, William Morrison, 10 " 

Nov. 3, " Mark Richards, 100 " 

Dec. I, " G. Patterson, 100 " 

transferred to S. Eckstein. 

" 19, " Charles Shippen, 200 " 

Jan. 5, 1828, Moses Hey, 50 " 

* Robert Shippen, 100 " 

* Moses Hey, 25 " 

* Mark Richards, 100 " 
' Mark Richards, 200 " 
' Moses Hey, 25 " 

* Samuel Eckstein, 40 " 
6, 1831, Joseph Ripka, 50 " 

William Rowland, 50 " 
27, 1833, ^^* Moore, 150 " 

1335 Inches. 



ct 


10, 


<< 


i5» 


<( 


25> 


March 


i3> 


(( 


20, 


April 


24, 


June 


6, 


Sept. 


23> 


May 


27» 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 79 

Making the total amount sold up to May 27, 
1833, as follows : — 

1005 inches at $3 00 

325 " 4 50 

1325 " 6 00 



2665 

I do not know how much has been sold since, 
as I kept no record of it. 

The official report of the Navigation Com- 
pany, January, 1822, states "that there had 
been sold 600 inches, and a 150 inches for land, 
and that this nearly covered half the expense of 
the works at Flat Rock." I should suppose that 
the " expense of the works at Flat rock" is not 
only covered, but principal and interest long 
since paid, and that entirely from the water 
rents. 



POPULATION. 

The growth of Manayunk, its population, &c., 
of course kept pace with the sale of water-power. 
The first correct and reliable census taken was 
by the Rev. C. Vancleaf, March, 1827. Mr. 
Vancleaf was the Pastor of the German Re- 
formed Church. I have his report in his own 
handwriting and over his own signature, as tol- 



8o EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

lows: 147 families; 550 males, 548 females; of 
which 244 were men, 306 women, 282 boys, 
and 266 girls — total 1098. In November, 1831, 
a little over four years and a half after Mr. Van- 
cleaf had taken the census, I took it myself very 
closely and correctly, from the Domino road 
to Sherr's lane inclusive. There were then 317 
dwellings and 2070 inhabitants. More than 
double the number of dwellings and nearly 
double the population in that short period. In 
November, 1836, just five years after I had 
taken the census, Joseph Gilkinson, the assessor, 
at my request again took it as follows : number 
of dwellings 541 ; white males 1420, females 
1729 ; colored males 16, females 10 — total 3175. 
Showing an increase in these five years of 1 105, 
over 50 per cent. 

The deputy marshal who took the census in 
1840, furnished me with a statement at that 
time, but I have mislaid it. It is, however, on 
record, as also that of 1850 and i860.* 

MANAYUNK. 

On May 14, 1824, was held a meeting of the 
citizens of Manayunk, which was followed by a 

* In a statistical account of Manayunk recently published in 
the Philadelphia Ledger, the present population is estimated at 
eighteen thousand. 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 8 I 

number of other meetings, at most of which I 
was present. Mr. Isaac Baird, William J. 
Brooke, and others, applied to my brother, who 
was something of a classical scholar, for an 
appropriate name for the village, and he sug- 
gested " Udoravia," with which a large majority 
present at one of these meetings seemed much 
pleased, and adopted it. The next morning the 
name was printed on a board and elevated on a 
post in a conspicuous place. A day or two after 
some of the proprietors of the mills, but not 
residents, came out from the city and strove 
hard to have the name altered. They seemed 
desirous it should have some Indian name, which 
was a popular idea at that time, and at a subse- 
quent meeting held for the purpose the subject 
v/as reconsidered, and some one suggesting the 
Indian name of the Schuylkill River, it was 
finally adopted. At the same meeting we took 
the liberty of establishing the orthography or 
manner of spelling the name. In all the ancient 
records it is spelled with an I and sometimes 
with a J, but nowhere I believe with a Y, until 
we established that mode of spelling it, and the 
reason we did so was that it would be more 
easily acquired and remembered, the spelling of 
it being in a manner poetical — 

M A N A 
Y U N K. 



82 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

All this matter was talked over at the meeting, 
and was the sole reason for altering the ortho- 
graphy. But previous to this the village had 
another name given it by Captain Towers, and 
which he persevered in calling it for some time, 
placing it at the head of his correspondence, &c. 
This name was " Bridge Water." I have seen 
it suggested somewhere that it should have 
been called "Towerville," in honor of Captain 
Towers. I can only say that the captain never 
had such an idea, and the pertinacity with which 
he adhered to the name he had himself given it 
is sufficient proof of the fact. 

STAGES. 

At one of the meetings referred to above it 
was resolved to make an effort to induce Jacob 
Shuster, who then ran a miserable old stage on 
the Ridge Road from the Ship tavern, near the 
nine mile stone, down to the city, to run It down 
Green lane and through Manayunk. I had fre- 
quently persuaded him to do so, but he would 
not consent. I finally proposed to him to raise 
a certain amount by subscription and give it to 
him on the condition that he would run his 
stage for three months through Manayunk. He 
consented, and I reported the fact to some of 
my neighbors. We raised him $65 and gave It 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 83 

to him ; he immediately discovered that running 
his stage through Manayunk was far more pro- 
fitable than running it on the Ridge Road. He 
soon had to procure more horses and stages, and 
his three months had hardly expired before he 
had an opposition to contend with in Mr. Craw- 
ford, who yet runs a stage from the intersection 
of the railroad up the Ridge Road. 

While on the subject of stages, I will state 
that the first omnibus successfully used in Phila- 
delphia, was originally built for Mr. Reeside, and 
placed by him on the Manayunk line with four 
horses. Previous to that there had been for a 
short time an old fashioned stage running on 
Chestnut Street to the Schuylkill River. Mr. 
Reeside's vehicle was the first one in the style of 
the modern omnibus, with convenient steps and 
a railing behind. After running it for some 
time to Manayunk he took it off the line and 
made a city omnibus of it, where it succeeded 
admirably, and was immediately followed by 
others in the same style. 

POST OFFICE. 

I do not remember the exact date of estab- 
lishing the post-office at Manayunk, but think 
it was in 1824 or 1825. This was exclusively 
my own act, in opposition and contrary to the 



84 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

wishes of many of my neighbors. We were 
then in the habit of getting our letters and pack- 
ages from the city by the stages. It had become 
a regular system, and was very convenient. By 
placing a strict construction on the post-office 
laws, many were of opinion that this arrangement 
would have to stop, as the law forbids carrying 
letters on a post route. I, however, applied to 
the department for the office, and recommended 
Mr. James Renshaw as postmaster. Mr. Ren- 
shaw, with whom I then boarded, kept the 
hotel built by Silas Levering. The authority 
and appointment came on promptly, but what 
may appear strange in these office-hunting days, 
I had a hard time in persuading Mr. Renshaw to 
accept it, and he only did so on my promise to 
assist him in making out his accounts, returns, 
&c. He held the office three months, and all 
my eloquence could not prevail on him to keep 
it longer. It was very troublesome to him, paid 
him very little, and he resolved to throw it up, 
but fortunately just at that time there came into 
the village a young man, Mr. Stott, who was an 
apothecary, and rented of Mr. Renshaw a small 
frame building he had erected in his yard for a 
barber shop. In this building he opened an 
apothecary store, and I prevailed on him to take 
the post-office. It being a pet of mine, I kept 
the run of it for several years, and it was curious 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 85 

to see how regularly every quarter its Income 
increased with the growth of the village. Mr. 
Stott held the office for several years until he 
left Manayunk, and now there was no difficulty 
in filling the office; on the contrary, there was a 
regular scramble for it. 



TURNPIKE ROAD. 

The Manayunk road, or Main Street, was so 
intolerably bad at times that it became abso- 
lutely necessary to do something with it. From 
Righter's ferry to Manayunk it was sometimes 
impassable, and often the teams and other vehi- 
cles would, on their way to the city, be forced 
to go up to the Ridge turnpike road, through 
Green or Sherr's lane. It was finally concluded 
to make a Macadamized road. An act of in- 
corporation was obtained from the legislature on 
the loth day of April, 1826. No one thought 
it would ever pay any interest, but it was neces- 
sary for our business to have a good road. The 
mill owners were all assessed in proportion to 
the number of inches of water they held, and 
generally took their proportion of the stock. I 
took mine under the full impression of never 
receiving anything in return except the advan- 
tage of having a good road at all times, but, con- 



86 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

trary to our expectations, it did pay the stock- 
holders a considerable amount of interest. 



SCHOOLS. 

At some of the meetings of the citizens, held 
in 1824, exertions were made to have a school- 
house erected, and finally Peter and Jonathan 
Roberson gave a lot for the purpose at the lower 
end of the village. Funds were raised by sub- 
scription, and we soon erected the first school- 
house in Manayunk. 

At that time and for several years after, we 
had no public system of education; on the con- 
trary, a miserable pauper system prevailed. 
Children whose parents were too poor to edu- 
cate them, were sent to the common schools, 
and the teachers paid from the county funds 
three cents a day for the actual attendance of 
each pupil. Roxborough township had two 
directors appointed by the court to dole out this 
miserable three penny business. Both the di- 
rectors resided on the Ridge, and were unac- 
quainted with the nature and necessities of the 
people of Manayunk. There was a universal 
desire that one of the directors should be a resi- 
dent of Manayunk, which seemed but fair and 
just, as its population exceeded that of all the 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 87 

rest of the township. At the request of a num- 
ber of persons I called on Judge King, the presi- 
dent of the court, in reference to the matter. 
He told me that for certain reasons he did not 
wish to displace either of the directors, and 
advised that we should apply to the legislature 
for a law to give Roxborough township an addi- 
tional director. He offered to procure such a 
law for us, which he did; and the first I knew 
of it was the reception of the appointment as 
director. On the receipt of the appointment I 
examined all the school laws, and had a consul- 
tation with my colleagues on the Ridge. I dis- 
covered that the practice was to examine closely 
into each applicant's case, and if the parents 
could earn a certain amount per day by their 
labor, the benefit of the school was refused to 
their children. There was nothing of this in 
the law, it was merely the custom, and I deter- 
mined to disregard it. The whole system of 
public education was at that time in a transition 
state, and I was a zealous advocate of the system 
that finally prevailed and which we now have. 
I refused to comply with this system of espio- 
nage, and notified all the teachers, some six or 
eight, and all the people in the village, that I 
was ready to give orders to every applicant. Of 
course I soon filled up all the schools, and when 
at the end of the quarter I took my bills as re- 



88 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

quired to the quarterly meeting of the directors 
of the sixth section, composed of Germantown, 
Roxborough, and Bristol, some of them were 
startled, but there was no getting over It. They 
were sent along with the rest to the Board of 
Control. The Board of Control grumbled, but 
it was of no use, they had to be paid ; I knew 
that well enough. The law made me sole judge 
of who I should send to the schools, and required 
the Board of Control to pay the bills duly quali- 
fied to by the teachers. Each successive quarter 
the bills increased in amount, the Board of Con- 
trol continually expressing dissatisfaction with 
the Manayunk bills, and finally the directors of 
the sixth section sent me as their representative 
to the Board of Control, which at that time 
consisted of only twelve members. There I had 
to fight my own battles. In all this I had an 
object in view. It was ^to get a large school- 
house built for the sake of economy if for no 
other reason. I succeeded in two instances in 
getting committees of the board to visit Mana- 
yunk, and both reported in favor of building 
a school-house, but I could never succeed in 
getting an appropriation for it up to the time I 
left Manayunk. 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 89 



WILLIAM L. BRETON. 

There was an English gentleman who resided 
many years at the Ridge and Manayunk, Mr. 
Breton. He was a self-made artist, and told me 
his first attempt at drawing was on board ship 
on his passage to this country. He took a large 
number of views of Manayunk at different 
periods, and I regret that after his death, some 
thirteen years since, most of his drawings were 
sent to England. Some of his views of Manayunk 
were taken as far back as 1824. In that year, as 
near as I can remember, there was a fashionable 
bookstore on the south side of Chestnut Street 
between Second and Third, kept by Mr. Poole, 
who was an agent for his father, a large pub- 
lisher in London. I frequently called there 
when in the city, and on one occasion there 
were two gentlemen in the store conversing on 
a subject that interested me; I listened for a 
short time and left. The next day I saw a per- 
son sitting on a stump at the foot of Church 
Street taking a sketch of the Stritzel house, sub- 
sequently torn down. I went towards him and 
discovered that it was one of the gentlemen I 
had seen the day before in Mr. Poole's store. 
It was Mr. Breton ; I introduced myself to him 
and asked him if he resided in the neighborhood. 
7 



90 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

He replied in the negative, and said he only 
intended to stay two or three days. I then 
asked him where he was located ; he mentioned 
the place, and I told him he could be more 
comfortably accommodated at the Leverington 
hotel on the Ridge road, where I then boarded. 
He came there the next day, intending, as he 
said, to stay two or three days ; he continued 
there and at Manayunk for many years. There 
was always a mystery about him that I could 
never understand. I have learned since his 
death that he had a wife and a number of chil- 
dren in England. I believe he was over eighty- 
three years old when he died. Although a 
man of intelligence and education, he was a 
thorough John Bull, a constitutional grumbler; 
in his view there was nothing right in this 
country — nothing wrong in his own. 

LIBRARY. 

The Library at Manayunk was originally in- 
stituted by Jacob B. Smith, a school teacher on 
the Ridge, a most excellent and worthy man ; 
he died shortly after, and bequeathed a number 
of valuable books to it. During his life it 
flourished and was successful, but for a long 
period after his death it was in a great measure 
neglected. It was finally removed to Manayunk, 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. • 91 

where It prospered in connection with a Lyceum 
established there. 



ST. DAVID'S CHURCH. 

The origin of the Episcopal Church at Mana- 
yunk with which I was connected, is due to the 
late Rev. Robert Davis, generally known among 
the clergy as " Eusebius Davis," from the cir- 
cumstance of his having published English trans- 
lations of some of the Ancient Fathers. He had 
been rector of a parish in Reading, and from ill- 
health was obliged to give it up. He made 
himself useful in seeking new localities for 
establishing parishes. I remember walking with 
him on a certain occasion on Market Street west 
of Broad, when he pointed to an upper story of 
a house with the observation that, " in that 
room he organized the first Episcopal Church 
in Philadelphia west of Broad Street, the Epi- 
phany." On a certain day he called on me, 
introduced himself, and told me his purpose was 
to organize an Episcopal congregation ; I told 
him I could see no chance of success ; that 
my own and one other family were all the Epis- 
copalians I knew of in the village. He then 
exhibited to me a memorandum book containing 
the names of nearly 300 persons in the village, 
who, he said, were brought up in and belonged 



92 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

to the Episcopal Church. He had canvassed 
every house in the village. I was surprised at 
this ; looked over his book, and finally told him 
to call on me the following week. In the mean 
time I called on a number of the persons whose 
names I had seen in his book, and found them 
favorably impressed. The next week he called 
on me again, when we proceeded at once to 
organize a parish, held a meeting at the school- 
house December 3, 1831, and elected twelve 
vestrymen. We procured the school-house, 
and subsequently the little church near it, where 
services were regularly held until the church 
was built; the late Tobias Wagner contributing 
largely to the fund for building it. From that 
time until his death in 1855, I kept up my inti- 
macy with Mr. Davis. I have reason to believe 
he was very much attached to me, as I certainly 
was to him. He was a great and long sufferer 
from ill-health, an excellent man, and humble 
Christian. I visited him in his last sickness, and 
helped to carry him to his grave. 

CHOLERA. 

In the summer of 1832 Manayunk was sorely 
afflicted with the cholera. Previously to its 
breaking out, we had, as was done everywhere 
else, organized a Sanitary Committee, of which 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 93 

they made me President. We went actively to 
work in having the vilhige thoroughly examined 
and cleansed. Every house was freely opened 
to our inspection; all nuisances abated; cellars 
cleaned and white-washed; and lime freely used 
in every direction. I doubt if the village ever 
had such a thorough cleaning before or since. The 
people were greatly alarmed — readily seconded 
our efforts — and doubtless these measures must 
have modified the disease when it reached us; 
yet it was very severe ; there were in all from 
forty to fifty deaths ; but a large majority of 
them were inebriates, men accustomed to hard 
drinking. It seemed to me that many persons 
had slight attacks of it. I had one myself; it 
passed off harmlessly ; but when it got hold of a 
hard drinking man it appeared to me there was 
not the slightest chance for his life, and in many 
cases they were carried off in a frightfully rapid 
manner. The physicians had a hard time, and 
we were obliged to get assistance for them. Dr. 
George McCalmont, then a student, offered his 
services, and on one occasion when he and myself 
were attending to a case, one of the physicians 
came to us and told us there was another man 
just taken with it in the street. He directed Dr. 
McCalmont to go along with me and attend 
to his case ; about an hour before, I had met 
that man in the street hauling stone with a horse 



94 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

and cart, and spoke to him; nothing seemed to 
be the matter with him then. He was a very- 
stout, corpulent man, weighed over 200 pounds, 
and I suppose drank his quart of whiskey every 
day, I took Dr. McCalmont to his house about 
ten o'clock in the morning; we found him walk- 
ing about his room in great agony. He imme- 
diately commenced abusing us and ordered us 
out of his house, saying we should not make any 
experiments with him, that he knew what was 
the matter with himself, nothing but a colic 
that he had often had before. I had seen a 
number of similar cases — became in a manner 
familiar with the disease — the remarkable ap- 
pearance of the eye, &c., and was perfectly con- 
vinced, at the first view I had of his face, that 
it was a bad case. I tried to reason with him, 
but it was useless. There was a bed in the room ; 
I tried to prevail on him to lie down, but he 
resisted for a long time ; at last, however, he 
became alarmed and docile, and was willing for 
the doctor to do what he could for him ; but he 
soon fell into the collapsed state and died, and 
before six o'clock that afternoon he was in his 
grave. 

This was rapid work, but other cases were 
equally so. It was by the advice of the physi- 
cians in this particular case that he was so 
speedily buried. We sent to the overseers of 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 95 

the poor, who resided on the Ridge, to come 
and bury him and others, but they were alarmed 
and refused to come near us ; we had to do the 
best we could. Mr. Bumstead, pastor of the 
German Reformed Church, tendered to us the 
basement room of his church, where we fitted 
up a hospital, and had a number of cases in it. 

On a certain Sunday, when the disease was at 
its height, there was a terrible panic prevailing 
throughout the village, and there was a great cry 
for physicians ; those we had could not attend 
to all the cases, and I sent an express to the Falls 
for Dr. Joseph Carson, now a Professor in the 
University of Pennsylvania. He had a day 
or two before returned from India, and I knew 
of his being at the Falls. I was standing in the 
street below Snyder's hotel, with a crowd around 
me all in a very excited state, when Dr. Carson 
drove up. He was immediately surrounded, 
every one anxious to get possession of him. The 
doctor of course was surprised at such a recep- 
tion, and appealed to me to know what he 
should do. I replied, go to work as quickly as 
possible. I took him to the nearest house, and 
went around with him as fast as we could. 
There was little or nothing the matter with 
most of them, merely frightened, and they mag- 
nified every little pain or ache into cholera. 
There were two Roman Catholic priests in the 



96 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

village at that time — the Rev. Mr. Mulhol- 
land, and the Rev. Mr. Carter, who is now priest 
of the Church at Spring Garden and Twelfth 
Streets. They were remarkably active and use- 
ful, day and night, among the sick. On a cer- 
tain occasion, when going around with one of 
them, Mr. Mulholland, I observed a man fol- 
lowing us, and whenever we came out of a house 
he would whisper something to the priest. This 
continued for some time; at last Mr. Mulholland 
turned to me and asked what I would advise in 
his case. He told me the man had been drinking 
to excess, making a beast of himself, and he had 
forbid him to drink any more liquor; that he 
now said he was accustomed to drink something 
daily, and if stopped oif suddenly at such a time, 
it would be attended with a bad effect and cause 
him to be sick. I replied that I thought there 
was some probability of that, and advised that he 
should allow him to take some liquor, but limit 
him in the quantity; he agreed with me, turned 
to the man, whispered something to him, and in 
an instant he was off on a full trot, making a bee 
line to the nearest rum shop. The last case we 
had was a boatman who was in a house near 
the locks. One afternoon I was called on by 
four physicians, two from the city, the others 
from Mobile, Alabama, who had been sent on 
here to study and make themselves acquainted 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 97 

with the disease before it reached their city ; 
there being few cases left in Philadelphia, they 
came out to Manayunk. I took them to the 
man at the locks. They examined him closely, 
made many learned remarks, and finally pro- 
nounced him convalescent. I did not presume 
to give an opinion in opposition to theirs, but I 
was perfectly satisfied in my own mind that 
nothing short of a miracle could save that man. 
He died that night. 

In 1833, application was made to the legisla- 
ture for a borough charter for Manayunk, but 
failed in consequence of some outside opposition. 
The citizens of Manayunk were generally in 
favor of it. 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCE. 

At the solicitation of a number of my neigh- 
bors, who had a certain object in view. Governor 
Wolf sent me a magistrate's commission. I had 
no desire for anything of the kind, and it lay 
in the recorder's office a year before I consented 
to take it, and only then did so at the urgent 
request of many persons who were not satisfied 
with the manner in which justice was dispensed 
at Manayunk. With but a solitary exception 
I never retailed justice, and, as that was some- 



98 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

what of a remarkable case, I will state it. I was 
quietly sitting in my house one evening, when 
William Welsh, an old resident of Manayunk, 
came rushing in and told me not to be alarmed, 
that a large crowd was coming up to my house 
with a prisoner. Not wishing them to come into 
my house, I went out in the road to meet them ; 
they had a poor fellow who apparently had been 
severely handled. It seemed some children had 
got to quarrelling and fighting, the women took 
it up, and finally the men got at it. After hear- 
ing all their stories, I gave a hint to Mr. Welsh, 
and asked him if he would be surety for the 
man's appearance before me next morning. 
He replied in the affirmative; this satisfied the 
crowd and it left ; after which I took the man 
to the back part of my lot, told him Manayunk 
was no place for him, and advised him to go in 
a roundabout way to his family, put them and 
all his eff^ects on board the first canal boat, and 
go up the river before morning. He followed 
my advice strictly, and the next morning was 
among the missing. Shortly after I met Judge 
King, and told him I had made my first attempt 
at dispensing justice. "Well," said he, "how 
did you make out ?" "Oh, first rate," said I, and 
told him the whole story. I never saw a man 
laugh more heartily. Said he to me, " You are the 
best magistrate in the county. I only wish we 




JOSEPH MONTELIER. 



Born in Oxford Street, London, Marylebone Parish, St. 
Patrick's Day, 17th day of March, 1756, six o'clock in the 
morning, six inches snow all over London. 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. 99 

had more like you ; if a Southwark magistrate 
had got hold of such a case, he would have made 
ten dollars out of it, sent it up to court to 
bother us, and it would have cost the county a 
hundred dollars; decidedly you are the best 
magistrate in the county." This was my first, 
last, and only case. 



JOSEPH MONTELIER. 

There was a very singular character, an Eng- 
lishman, who resided many years in the little 
log-house on the west side of the river, about 
opposite the water wear of the canal. We used 
to speak of him as the Hermit ; he was known 
in the neighborhood as Joseph Moore, but that 
was not his name ; his real name was Joseph 
Montelier. His own account of himself, which 
he often repeated, was, to use his own words, 
** Born in Oxford Street, London, Marylebone 
Parish, St. Patrick's day, 17th day of March, 
1756, six o'clock in the morning, six inches snow 
all over London." He bought the house and 
some two or three acres of land attached to it, 
in April, 1800, and resided there alone until his 
death, March 27, 1836. At the time he came 
there he could not have selected a more retired 
and secluded spot, and I remember how much 
it troubled him when his privacy was broken up 



lOO EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

by the improvements at Manayunk, and making 
a road on the western side of the river in front 
of his house. When he purchased the property 
he also purchased vi^ith the rest of his means a 
small annuity ; his wants were few, and it was 
sufficient for his support. In old times, before 
the existence of Manayunk or any improvements 
in the neighborhood, he cultivated a very pretty 
garden, a variety of fruits and flowers, and had 
considerable taste for horticulture. He had been 
a business man of some kind, had made a voyage 
or two to China, and he had in his house some 
beautiful China ware, which seemed quite out of 
place in his humble establishment. Annually, 
on the Fourth of July, it was the custom of John 
Levering (proprietor of the mills at the mouth 
of the creek opposite Manayunk) and others, 
to assemble under a tree near Montelier's house, 
provided with all the materials for making 
punch, and the " General," as they called him, 
would bring out his large China punch bowl, 
when they would have a merry time. It was 
on one of these occasions that Mr. Breton, who 
was present, drew a picture of him. The log- 
house he occupied was originally on the east side 
of the river, at the foot of Green lane ; it was 
built there to take in grain for the mill on the 
opposite side of the river, and was taken over on 
the ice in the winter of 1 793-1 794. 



FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL, ETC. I 01 

STEAMBOATS. 

Two attempts were made at different periods 
to run steamboats from Philadelphia to Norris- 
town. The first was, I think, as far back as the 
year 1822, by Captain Hewit, an old ship- 
master, who had previously commanded a ship 
in the East India trade ; he made several trips 
to Norristown, but soon abandoned the attempt; 
the detention in the different locks was such as 
to make the passage tedious. In the year 1829 
another attempt was made, but that was also soon 
abandoned. On another occasion a line of 
packets was established to run from Philadelphia 
to Reading with horses on the tow-path, but it 
too was an up-hill business, and did not last long. 

CONCLUSION. 

In the year 1839 I sold my mill and dwelling 
to John Winpeny, left Manayunk, and dissolved 
my connection with it, and although I have ever 
since felt much interest in it, I know very little 
about it from that period. It always was to me, 
and I know was looked on by many, as an inte- 
resting spot. I have ever viewed it as an exten- 
sive workshop, its population and water-power, 
actively employed in production, adding much 



I02 HISTORY OF THE FALLS OF SCHUYLKHX. 

to the wealth and comforts of our country. 
While I resided there, there are those still living 
who will do me the justice to say, I was always 
ready to second any effort for its improvement, 
prosperity, and welfare. In some cases I differed 
with many of my friends and neighbors as to 
what were the true interests of Manayunk and 
its manufactories, but whatever opinions I held 
they were my honest convictions, the result of 
long, close observation, and much reflection on 
the delusive subject of " Protective Tariffs, &c.," 
which so often hold out "promises to the ear, 
and break them to the hope." I became 
thoroughly convinced in my own mind that the 
true interests of manufactories and all connected 
with them, lay much deeper than in protective 
tariffs, and that they who desire their permanent 
prosperity must look to a vital reform in our 
currency system. The nearer we approach to a 
sound, exclusively metallic currency, the better 
will it be for our manufacturing interests, and all 
the labor and industry of our country. 



98 



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